Frost
by Deathwhisperer
Summary: Trapped within an abyss of despair, experiencing regret she did not know she was capable of, the Capital's Strongest screamed and unleashed her might, freezing the tendrils of time. Her soul cried out and she surpassed the limits of her Teigu - for not only did she stop time, she turned it back as well...
1. Prologue - Shiver

**Prologue - Shiver**

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_Trapped within an abyss of despair, experiencing regret she did not know she was capable of, the Capital's Strongest screamed and unleashed her might, freezing the tendrils of time. Her soul cried out and she surpassed the limits of her Teigu - for not only did she stop time, she turned it back as well..._

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**Music - Liar Mask (piano version) by theishter.**

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The flawless blade of her rapier buried itself deep within his heart, the heart whose love she had yearned for so long. She twisted the blade and he gasped. His spear fell to the ground and clattered. His armor faded, dissipating with a soft white smoke. Pure green met icy blue. He looked up at her with melancholic sadness and gave her a forlorn smile. It was the smile of one beyond heartbreak, of one weary with bloodshed and sacrifice.

"It is the way things are, Tatsumi." she whispered. "The strong live and the weak die. There is no changing it."

"You are.. the only one who could have." he sighed.

Her expression hardened. "I will not."

"You are heartless.. after all." he said, breathing his last. His limp body slumped down the length of her weapon and she caught him in her arms. Warm blood drenched her immaculate uniform, marring the cloth. She slipped the rapier out in one smooth pull, and he collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

She looked upon the burning city, the horror in the eyes of the survivors. She gazed upon the unmoving husk of the metal giant that is the first Teigu and the corpse of the child emperor who had been Onest's puppet all his life. She stared at the ruins of the royal palace, the seat of an empire that had endured a thousand years of strife. She watched at the works of her hands, her blade; the result of her ultimate victory.

Yet all she felt.. was emptiness.

* * *

Loneliness.

Silence.

Confusion.

Feelings she had never felt before. Never experienced. Never known. She has always been a being of unbroken will, a person who knew who she was, what she was and what she wanted to do. She was the strongest warrior in the world, a predator whose hunt encompasses the entirety of the planet, the culmination of survival in human evolution.

A woman who wanted to fall in love.

She dropped to her knees, staring at the frozen earth with a haunted expression on her face.

What had she done?

Her Jaegers, gone. Run slain by Najenda. Wave slain by one of Shikoutazer's beams. Kurome had disappeared. She was a ruthless general in battle, merciless on her enemies, but loved by her subordinates. They were caring comrades, brave souls, and admirable warriors. They weren't simple minions, disposable soldiers for her to use.

Were they?

But isn't that all she's used them for? She did not so much as change her expression when Stylish died. She comforted Bols and Seryu merely for morale - the girl cannot perform well with unresolved grief and the big man should work better if he opened up a bit. News of their deaths only made her sigh. She knew Run joined to change the empire from the inside, and he knew she knew, and she doesn't care. Wave, the laughable idiot, was just a source of comic relief to her - an expendable pawn like every underling she had ever had. Liver. Nyau. Daidara. None of them really mattered to them. They were pieces in the game of survival they all played, where all were inferior to the Queen.

And then there was Tatsumi.

The idealistic youth who had captured her heart with his innocent smile. He fought with incredible skill, nearly mirroring her own when she was his age; brimming with potential and will. The soft locks of his brown hair, the purity reflected in his emerald eyes.

He had escaped her, a feat no living soul could boast of - not only once, but thrice. He believed in justice, in the strong helping the weak - the complete opposite of what she herself had lived for her entire life, but that did not detract from his attractiveness. Far from it. She longed for his presence, adored his naivete and lusted after his appearance.

Their time alone in that isolated island served only to amplify her hunger for his love, for his approval, though it never surpassed her want for power and her will to survive.

When he was captured infiltrating the Imperial Palace, she gave him an option - to join her or have her personally kill him in a public execution. It should have been an easy decision. He would have stood by her side, the winning side, as her champion and lover. But he refused. In the face of certain death, in the dark of an underground cell, starving and in misery, Tatsumi preferred to remain in his situation rather than becom

Did he see her as something so demented that he would rather die than submit to her side and affections?

Thinking back, perhaps she was.

She had planned to torture him before executing him, telling herself that it was to see whether or not he was the man she thought he was, but it was nonsense. She knew who he was, what he was, what he stood for, the moment he rejected her offer in that dank, dark cell room.

His last battle proved his unmistakable strengths.. and weaknesses. He could not allow Shinkoutazer's metal carcass to fall upon the people of the city and took it upon himself to sacrifice the last of his strength to hold back the remains of the first Teigu. So great was the strain that Incursio broke apart in the end, its owner helpless and close to death's door.

And then they saw each other.

She walked to him, rapier unsheathed, taking in the sight of her beloved. Even in his state he rose, gripping the spear that was a remnant of his Teigu so weakly it dragged along the ground pitifully. He tried to swing it yet it fell halfway before reaching her.

He did not waver in her icy presence, did not cower as her blade entered his heart. The echoes of his last words, weighed with indescribable grief, haunted her.

You are heartless, after all.

Tatsumi was right. She is heartless. Always had been, always will be. It was an inevitable consequence of her philosophy, a consequence she accepted gladly in exchange for unbound power..

What?

She touched her cheeks and found it moist. Did she use her Teigu without realizing it? But she followed the dampness and reached her eyes.

Her? The Mistress of Ice? The Capital's Strongest? In tears?

The incredulity of it all made her laugh. Her laughter was hoarse and choked, and she clawed at her eyes shredding her skin and drawing cautious stares from the wary onlookers in the distance. They wouldn't stop, damn it all. The people watching, the tears forming, the pain raw and burning.

The crushing weight of regret she did not know she was capable of forced her to the ground. Every fibre of her being screamed in unfamiliar agony. The agony of realization. The anguish of loss. The throes of sadness.

She involuntarily summoned her powers and a frozen field extended across her world. Shards of frost erupted from the marred streets, impaling men and women alike, their corpses jutting towards the sky like bloody needles. Houses were crushed, buildings were ripped apart and soldiers from both sides were slain in the wake of her unrestrained powers. The entire city was soon covered the coldest ice; the ice of her heart, forged from her frozen soul.

Her entire world exploded into a bluish void. Streaks of beryl arced across the fading sky, icy bolts of cerulean frost rising from the ground. The sun stood still, wrapped in the embrace of sapphire clouds, until it moved against the natural course it had travelled for countless millennia. The moon rose from the horizon and leapt across the heavens in a split second; the sun returned, followed by the moon, and she witnessed days and nights pass her by. The mountains of ice she had raised cracked and crumbled, drifting across an ocean of molten water. The stars drift by, bright specks upon the sky.

She levitated above the earth and the passage of time regressed even further.

Her eyes blazed of the darkest blue and coils of pure white energy exuded from her body. The tattoo on her chest blurred and dissipated. Her hands shook like mad until she regained control of her body, tightening her fists until it drew blood. But her blood was not of the crimson hue of life, but that of clear blue.

The tattoo on her chest throbbed so hard she gasped. The rapid cycle of night and day above her slowed to a crawl and the pain intensified. She clutched her chest, gritting her teeth in pain, and felt the tattoo lose its cohesion. It dissipated into the air, a ghastly silhouette appearing for the briefest moment.

There is always a price. it whispered.

It disappeared, and darkness enveloped her.

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The swirling chaos that was her reality faded, and she collapsed to the ground - or rather, the ocean. She was immediately drenched. The water was surprisingly warm and welcoming, soaking her long hair. She could still feel the steel of rapier beside her - a slight relief.

Analyzing her surroundings out of habit, she discovered a tropical island a few hundred paces away from her. She immediately started swimming towards the beach,

The sun burned and the waves crashed upon the shores of the uninhabited island. She realized that it was the island where she and Tatsumi were trapped a long time ago, and smiled in reminiscence of day. She had never had so much fun until then, picking coconuts with the flustered boy, hunting giant boars and, of course, showing off the extent of her powers against the mega danger beasts their mysterious assailant had left on the island. He ended up impressing her instead of the other way around. Running to a mega class danger beast without a Teigu, he slew it with uncanning speed and precision.

And now he's gone.

She did not know what she did - her powers grew out of control and her memories of her time in the azure dimension. Did she unveil another aspect of her Teigu she did not know before? Could it now teleport her like Shambhala, albeit with a heavier drain on its user?

She would sort it out later. For now, she needed to find a way back to the Capital before it descends into utter chaos once again. The rebel army would definitely make their move while she was away - she will teach them otherwise. Perhaps a few nights in the torture chambers would bring her back to her former state.

A giant boar appeared from the underbrush, chasing a huge coconut rolling down the beach. It glanced at her with a curious look, and she realized she was hungry. She raised a finger to summon spikes of ice with which she will impale the beast for supper.

Nothing.

She raised her hand once again, drawing out her power, but realized she no longer felt its freezing grip on her body. She tried again and again to no avail, and the horror of reality descended upon her like a tidal wave.

She looked upon her untainted chest - the tattoo that symbolized the presence of her Teigu within her was gone.

There was no doubt about it.

Her Teigu was gone.

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**A/N: So, that was a thing.**

**It was an idea that festered in my head for days now. I could not, will not accept the blasphemy of an ending the anime gave me and decided to give it a go myself.**

**Oh, the possibilities! The grandeur! The wonders of time!**

**Here's a deal - I'm working on another fanfic as of this moment and probably won't update this for awhile. But I'm willing to make an exception if this story gets a decent reception. Give me ten reviews and I'll get three chapters done by then. I will freely admit that I am a review whore but then again, isn't everyone?**

**Other than that, have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer.**


	2. Burning Ice

**Chapter One - Burning Ice**

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_"The weak are destined to lie underneath the boots of the strong."_

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Optional Music - Death Dance

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Esdeath swung the rapier aside, cleaning it of leftover blood in whipping move. She took a knife hidden in the bottom of her boots and started to skin the carcass of the giant boar. She was pleased to discover she still retained her clan's hunting skills. Once cleaned and picked thoroughly, the boar's hide would make a good cloak.

She proceeded to build a fire by cutting down several palm trees nearby with her blade. Chopping off several logs, she ripped apart some dry bushes and used to boar's hard tusks to spark a fire in the pile of greenery. It caught on at her first try but took a while to grow in size. While waiting for the fire to catch on, Esdeath fashioned a stake from one of the fallen palm trees and used it to skewer her meal-to-be. Constructing a makeshift cooking pit, she used her incredible strength to hoist the boar's carcass and dropped it on burning heap of logs and bushes.

She waited for her dinner to cook, sitting down on the sand as the sun went down, deep in thought.

The loss of her Teigu was ultimately the worst blow to her strength she had ever experienced in her life. During the few years she had with the Demon's Extract in her blood, she had never felt so alive, so powerful.. so deadly. With the Ultra-Class danger beast's power, she finally claimed the title of the Capital's Strongest.

That said, it goes without saying that she remains a formidable foe. Her mastery over the rapier is unmatched, and even Susanoo's Magatama Manifestation could barely stand toe to toe against her swordsmanship.

Glancing to the side, she saw the boar glowing a nice shade of brown, ready to be eaten. She got to her feet and used her knife to tear pieces off the body and began eating. By the time she had had her fill, the skies were dotted with the faint luminescence of stars.

Esdeath took her rapier and began practicing stances and lunges. Now that she had lost her Teigu, she must strive to improve her other method of combat. She will acquire another Teigu when she returns to the capital. In the mean time, she will perfect the use of her weapon.

Lunge. Stab. Slice. The rapier is a weapon of speed and balance. It is not meant to go edge to edge against maces and long swords, but as a weapon with which one can slowly wear down the enemy with a build up of wounds. To use the rapier, its wielder must be the epitome of agility and precision.

When she was young, barely a teenager, her father had given her a rapier he acquired by raiding a caravan heading for the Northern Tribes. He explained to her that though she was a proficient warrior, she often lets her passion and bloodlust get the better of her, resulting in clumsy blows and blind strikes. She nodded, absorbing her father's words and securing them in her heart. Together they practiced their weaponry, and slowly but surely she became a prodigy of the weapon. By the time of her tribe's massacre, she could use the rapier to defeat colossal danger beasts with ease.

An angry screech in the distance halted her assault on a palm tree, leaving her rapier stuck on the trunk. She saw an Air Manta rising above the volcano in the center of the island. Right. They were her original plans for a ride out of the island before Tatsumi warned her that the portal was opening once again.

For some reason, even though she was his enemy, he did not want to leave her behind. It both warmed and hurt her heart once again.

Reclaiming her rapier from the bark of the palm tree, she began a trek to the center of the island.

It is time for her to leave.

In all of Esdeath's travels, she had never seen a sight more beautiful.

An entire archipelago pleased her aesthetic wants, filled with tropical flora and various exotic animals. Small birds appeared before her and she

Taming the air manta was harder without her Teigu, but she wasn't called the Capital's Strongest for nothing. She reined it in with a makeshift vine collar and used it to get off the island. It took her a few tries, but she soon learned the basics of using air manta as a method of transportation. It wasn't that different from using her pet dragon after all. A small memory of Najenda riding into the execution stadium on top of an air manta passed her mind.

She would sleep on one of the islands at night after feasting on the tropic's plethora of delicacies. She even tried eating some of the fruits the trees had borne, finding a liking to a particular bunch of small, green skinned fruits with golden flesh and a clean core. She wrapped some in palm tree leaves and brought them with her on her journey. To secure her ride through the night, Esdeath used the hard, thick vine that grew everywhere on the archipelago to anchor the air manta to the ground. She fed it the occasional giant fish for sustenance.

Over time she finally cleaned the hide of the boar she slew for her first meal on the island. She fashioned a cloak similar to the one her father wore long ago and draped it across her body. Her resistance to cold, it seemed, had disappeared along with her Teigu, and she needed some sort of clothing to help ease the cold nights.

On the sixth day of her journey she was cooking another giant boar when a colossal danger beast appeared from the island's forests. It was a towering humanoid rock danger beast, covered with moss and vines. The scent of her meal seems to have drawn it to her, and she smiled maliciously, appreciating the challenge. The vines clinging to the danger beast were its best weapons - Esdeath had a relatively hard time evading their grasp while trading blows with the monstrous giant. It was only after she inflicted a powerful slash that nearly decapitated the giant's head that she was able to take it down. Its body collapsed on the floor, shaking the ground and burying various trees in its wake.

The battle was harder than Esdeath would admit. She had relied on her Teigu for far too long and had discovered that without it she was hard pressed to kill something her previous self would have slain in a mere second. She had grown complacent of a life with her Teigu, and doubled her rapier training afterwards to ensure her skills in battle remain unmatched.

On the ninth day Esdeath decided to cut off her long hair. She was proud of it but she realized it had to go when it hindered her fight with the colossal danger beast. She sat by a small stream and began working on her hair. Long blue strands dropped into the moving water, going with the flow, until the stream was covered with her light blue locks.

She looked into a pond afterwards, assessing her new image. Her head felt light, but she found her short hair to be relatively acceptable. She had never cut her hair before - not since the day she was born. Now her sky blue hair barely reached her shoulders, but she was certain that her sexual allure remains undiminished.

Her beauty had never been anything else than another weapon until she met Tatsumi. She maintained her attractiveness to put her prey off guard. When she met the boy with green eyes, she discovered a new side of herself - she was actually put off by the fact that he did not want to spend a night with her. She spent days afterwards grooming her hair, experimenting with loose clothing to further emphasize her cleavage, even ditching her favorite beret, all in favor of impressing the handsome youth she had set her eyes on to no avail.

On the fifteenth day of her journey she saw the first signs of civilization - the wrecked ruins of a fishing boat. It was old and rotten, and had washed up on one of the islands she spent her nights on. Fishing boats don't tend to go long distances, so either a fishing village is close by or the mainland is only a few days ride away.

Esdeath inspected the wreckage. It was small and damp from the constant spray of the ocean. Inside the boat she found a rotting corpse, presumably the fisherman who owned the boat. Scrounging around, she hauled off a remarkably sturdy net and a fishing rod. She also found a copper trinket and kept it. She did not know why she did it. Regardless, she continued her journey into the night, putting a strain on her air manta - knowing the mainland was close had whipped her travelling spirits.

On the twentieth hour of the seventeenth day, she arrived on the mainland, on a barren stretch of coast. Before landing, she had scouted her vicinity and found a fishing village nearby. She slept better than she ever had in the odd days of her journey.

Tomorrow she will meet people once more. Smiling savagely as she drifted off to a welcome nightmare, she resolved to regain her title once again, no matter the cost.

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Standing silently, Esdeath surveyed the closely built huts that make up the fishing village. She was wearing her boarskin cloak for the first time. It was mottled brown, and served to hide her rapier and her imperious attire. She will make sure no rebels were nearby before revealing her rank so that they won't have a chance to escape - although she doubted this remote settlement would have any rebel presence. In any case, this far south in the Empire's territory, there's always a chance of meeting members of the revolutionary army. She licked her lips in anticipation of having a chance to test out the new torture methods that had festered in her mind in her days travelling the archipelago.

The village was composed of seven wooden huts. They looked sturdy and well built. A few children were playing in the middle of the settlement, with one old woman scolding them when they seemed to have pushed her patience. Esdeath took note of one boy's athletic capabilities, climbing to the roof of a hut with ease.

With good training, he should be a good member of the Scouting Corps.

Pushing aside her thoughts on mandatory recruitment, Esdeath reminded herself to rein in her bloodlust before achieving her goal - to obtain information of her location.

Her arrival in the premises did not go unnoticed. The children stopped playing in favor of pointing at her and waving their hands, and the old woman in sitting by the huts shushed them before standing up to greet the newcomer herself. Since no other adults were around, Esdeath found it sensible to presume that the rest of their village were out fishing in the open ocean.

"Greetings." Esdeath said formally. "I wish to speak to the Elder of your village."

"That would be me, young miss."

"Where in the empire is this village located?" Esdeath said, placing a hand on her hips. If the old woman was discomforted by her straightforwardness, she did not show it.

"Oh, we're just a small place far southeast of the capital. The middle of nowhere, really. If I may ask, who are you and why are you here, young lady?"

"That is not for you to know." Esdeath smiled devilishly, flashing the Imperial Badge on her uniform.

The old woman's expression turned blank.

"I see."

She gestured to the inside of her hut.

Esdeath slipped her hand inside her cloak, ready to draw her rapier if need be, but instead of rebel soldiers a young girl appeared. She could not have been older than twelve, and looked at the old lady reverently.

"Brew our best tea, Maya. We have a visitor."

The old lady ushered her inside. She sat on a humble chair in a homy room without taking off her cloak. She observed the small hut - there were fishing poles hanging on the walls and a stuffed walrus head above the fireplace. To Esdeath's surprise, she saw the skull of a relatively powerful danger beast in a corner.

"Ah, yes. My husband was quite the hunter back in the day. He used to bring back danger beasts many times. It was with that skull of a storm shark that he proposed to me.

"He must be an admirable warrior." Esdeath said.

"He was." the old lady said, leaning back on her seat. She stared at the imperious woman warily. "He disappeared ten years ago trying to find a rare specimen of fish for our wedding anniversary."

"Then he was weak, and deserved death." Esdeath mocked.

"Perhaps." the old woman conceded. "But strength is not all there is in this world. Ah, Maya." she paused, giving an acknowledging nod to the young girl. Maya placed a set of earthenware cups and poured tea into them. "Please, have some tea."

Esdeath did not move to take it.

"Tell me, what else is there?"

"If you're wondering if we poisoned the tea, do not worry." the old woman frowned. "I would never ask Maya to do such a thing."

As Esdeath remained still, staring coldly at her, the old woman sighed.

"Adventures to the ends of the world." the old woman finally replied. "Grief over death. Worry about the days to come. Excitement of an upcoming harvest. The joy of being in love.."

Esdeath stiffened, which did not go unnoticed by her host.

"None of it matters if you're dead." Esdeath scoffed.

"But then again, are you really alive in the first place?" the old woman dared. "Tell me, young lady, how is it that you were raised that all you know is the pursuit of power?"

"In the northern plains, where I learned to kill the same day I learned to walk. The way of the Partas clan is the way to survive, to thrive above the weak."

"How unfortunate. Tell me, where is your tribe now?"

"You amuse me, woman." Esdeath bared her teeth in a predatory grin. "Few people have the guts to speak to me like you do. They usually find their guts lying on the ground afterwards."

"You have experienced love, yes?" the old woman continued, ignoring her threat. She leaned closer to her guest, narrowing her eyes. "Then you should understand the various experiences life could offer. Strength in battle is but a small piece of-"

"I've had enough of your nonsense, old hag." Esdeath hissed, rising suddenly and violently, turning over the living room table. Earthenware broke and tea spilled on the cold floors. The blue haired woman unsheathed her rapier and pointed it at the old woman's throat. Her host remained unperturbed.

"Go ahead." the old woman said nonchalantly, steely eyes staring fearlessly at the tip of the blade. "The children have left, and little Maya as well. I have lived a long life. I do not fear death."

Esdeath returned her stare with tenfold malice.

"Perhaps not, but you should fear me." Esdeath snapped icily.

"Threatening an old woman, are you?" the Elder countered. Her countenance eased into one of pity and sadness and gave the young general a forlorn smile. It enraged her beyond anything else the old woman said.

"Good luck in your journey, young lady. I hope you find what you are looking for." she said, without a trace of hate in her voice.

Esdeath's face contorted into one of rage.

She severed the old woman in half with a single swipe. Her expression of sympathetic melancholy tempted Esdeath to further mutilate the body, but as she regained her composure she decided it was not worth the trouble.

"Go join your husband in hell." she laughed, tossing the copper trinket she found in the fishing boat's wreckage at the old woman's corpse. She kicked over a small barrel of fish oil and slashed at it with her rapier, igniting a fire. The fire spread quickly, consuming the sealskin rugs on the floor and rose to the ceiling. The wooden structure creaked, its integrity compromised. Standing by the doorway of the hut, she looked back at the halved corpse of her host with a sadistic mien. "I'm sure he missed you."

Moments later, she left behind a burning village.

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**A/N: Long live the ice queen.**

**So, first chapter! Review along - I'm mostly worried whether or not I am portraying her character correctly. Please tell me what you think of her volatility. ****If you're wondering what time period she is in, don't worry. We'll get there eventually.**

**Review to save a bunny from a gruesome death!**

**Have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer.**


	3. Gray Clouds

**Chapter Three - Gray Clouds**

"Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception." - Carl Sagan.

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_Optional Music - Angel of Death_

It has been a month since she was ominously transported to the deserted island and the distance to the Capital grows shorter by the day. The air manta have given up trying to escape during the night, accepting the fact that he is now under the control of a human mistress and are to be used as she sees fit.

To Esdeath's delight, she discovered that she had missed travelling. Prior to arriving at the Capital she had traversed most of the known world, hunting Danger Beasts and slaying soldiers and citizens alike. She spent most of her teenage years honing her skills as a warrior and living the nomadic lifestyle she had inherited from the Partas tribe.

She had not encountered any other settlements in her northward journey. It was expected - much of the southern parts of the empire are sloping hills and towering mountains. It was the reason that the revolutionary was able to form at all - it was near impossible to monitor and keep track of rebellious movements in the numerous villages and towns ensconced within the safety of the Dasten mountain range. Left to grow and fester, the angry citizens of the south became the first beacon of rebellion and the first soldiers of the Revolutionary Army.

She settled down for the night, tying down her air manta and building a bonfire to cook the remains of a delectable danger beast she had stumbled upon the previous day. The blue haired general practiced her swordsmanship while her dinner cooked, and recollected her early days in the military.

Esdeath has forgotten the enormous size of the Empire. It took her seven years to cover most of the Empire's land, after all, but her rapid promotion and duties had stopped her from searching for challengers.

The Imperial Military was a joke before she came. Eight hundred thousand men, most of them either greedy bastards or unwilling recruits, with two hundred thousand auxiliary units to complete the million-strong number.

It was all a bluff. The moment the army was forced to face significant resistance, they would crumble into the weak, pathetic cowards they truly are. None of them were loyal to the Empire, and the skilled are few and far in between. Moreover, the promotion system seemed to be based on bribery and bootlicking instead of actual competence and expertise in one's field.

Esdeath made sure to change that particular aspect of military politics.

She faced murderous opposition, of course. Politics wouldn't be politics otherwise. There were numerous attempts on her life, ranging from paltry threats such as half-assed assassins and bandits to blatant assault from an entire battalion. She counted to sixty seven tries before deciding that keeping a record of the military's feeble attempts at ending her life was too much of a hassle.

When a relatively competent, but ultimately weaker, Teigu user ambushed her in her favorite coffee shop, she snapped. She walked straight into the military headquarters in the Capital and started butchering every official, every captain, commander and guards within the building. When military forces tried to intercede, she killed them as well. She spent three days torturing and humiliating the conniving hierarchy of the military. Out of the two hundred and thirty two officials working inside the building in the day of her rampage, eleven survived. The rest became gruesome displays of mutilated bodies and dying men, some tied to the roof with their legs cut off, left to die of blood loss, while she tossed body parts of her victims out the windows every other minute during her three day killing streak. It ended only when General Budou and Prime Minister Onest themselves personally came to talk her out of it. She agreed only when Onest promoted her to General so she doesn't have to kill her superiors to get out of following orders anymore. The only person person above her in terms of rank would be the Emperor, Onest and Budou himself, not that they had ever tried to command her against her wishes.

Looking back, Esdeath was unsure whether or not she could have taken Budou's Adramelech without her Teigu. She regretted the stubborn man's death; she wished she could have fought him before he was slain by Night Raid. But then again, since he was killed by the Night Raid she defeated, she can assume that he is the weaker warrior.

Esdeath ended her practice session and sat down to enjoy her meal. Wrapping herself with her boarskin cloak, she settled on the soft wings of her air manta and slept.

* * *

_She was back in the execution stadium, standing in front of a crucified Tatsumi. She looked across the stadium to see a faceless audience, staring at her, waiting for her to make a move._

_"What are you waiting for, ice queen?" Tatsumi whispered._

_"I.. don't know."_

_"Go ahead. Cut me apart. Slice me to pieces."_

_"I will not." she said._

_"But you did."_

_He suddenly appeared before her, bloody and unbound. His skin was covered with bleeding cuts and massive bruises, true to the nature of her daily activities in the torture chambers. His left eye was gouged out. A lone emerald orb gazed at her dispassionately._

_She screamed and slashed at him, but Tatsumi disappeared and her father's image replaced him. He looked at her with apparent disappointment and pity._

_"The Capital's Strongest, reduced to killing old women in the middle of nowhere." he chuckled. "When I mean by strong, I certainly didn't mean that."_

_"You're dead, father." she said frostily. "You were weak. They were stronger. I was stronger than them, and now they're dead."_

_"You're so lost.. so warped.. so confused.." a haunting, familiar voice said._

_Her father morphed into the old woman she slew at the fishing village._

_"How's hell, old hag?" Esdeath mocked._

_"Quite warm, thank you very much." the old lady said nonchalantly. "In fact, I've been sent to give you a personal invitation."_

_"You can do no such thing." she said confidently._

_Shadows formed around Esdeath; her Jaegers, the assassins of Night Raid, the madmen of the Wild Hunt, her disapproving father.. Tatsumi. Their bodies were twisted and mutilated, limbs missing, bodies frozen and scorched. But whatever state they were in, they shared one thing in common - their eyes were piercing blue._

_"Perhaps I can't." the old woman admitted. The atmosphere darkened in an instant and the old woman grinned. Her teeth were few and rotten, and her smile exuded morbid pleasures and brutal delights. Esdeath tried to raise her rapier but found her arms burdened by invisible weights. She took an involuntary step backwards._

_"But we can."_

_They lunged at her and her world disappeared into a cacophony of screams and agony._

* * *

She awoke with a start.

Over her years of constant conflict and skirmishes, she had gained a near instinctive skill of detecting an enemy's presence. It had served her well, warning her of incoming assassins and spies.

Someone was close by.

She stood up, discarding her cloak and raised her rapier.

"Reveal yourself!" she declared boldly. "Before I get bored and kill you."

"You're pretty good, little girl. But not good enough."

A giant of a man appeared from the shadows. His size belies his skills in hiding himself. A dozen more men rose from the shadows, wielding a diverse assortment of weapons. The giant man who had greeted her walked calmly to the campfire and eyed her greedily.

"The name's Drugan, and you just got the pleasure of meeting the Thirteen Demons of Dasten Mountains."

Bandits, and not ordinary ones either. Good, Esdeath grinned maliciously. She was looking forward to using her rapier once more.

"If you're thinking about running away that danger beast, think again." Drugan said, gesturing to a rifle-wielder to his left. "Hans can shoot you down from a mile away."

"What makes you think I'll run away?" Esdeath laughed condescendingly.

"You don't look half bad, wench. Maybe we'll play with you a little before we cut you up." he smiled lecherously. His companions nodded in agreement and raised their weapons in anticipation of a fight.

"How arrogant." Esdeath scoffed. She pointed the tip of her rapier at the leader of the bandit group. "I will kill you last, and I promise you your death will be slow and painful."

"Die, bitch!" one of the younger members of the bandit group shouted, charging towards her.

His disembodied corpse crashed to the ground a split second later.

"Go." Drugan commanded. The remaining eleven underlings spread around her, trying to flank the blue haired warrior that had slain their comrade with uncanny ease.

Esdeath assessed her opponents. Without her Teigu, her crowd-control options are limited. The most she could fight with at one time would be four, perhaps five. Two of the bandits wielded a bolt rifle and a bow, complicating things further.

But she wasn't the Capital's Strongest for nothing.

A trio of hammer wielding bandits lunged at her with a coordinated swings. They seem to have worked together for a long time, and it seems that their plan is to stack their attacks so that their opponent will have no breathing space.

Esdeath evaded once, twice, and unleashed a blinding counterattack. Caught off guard by her speed, she managed to slay two of the three hammer wielders before the third backed off. Her long ranged opponents didn't even have a chance to fire their weapons before their allies were torn to shreds.

She did not hesitate, and used the momentum she used to kill the first two enemies to charge at the gun-totting bandit. He managed to fire a single round which missed before Esdeath decapitated him, an expression of surprise and wonder permanently etched to his face. She turned to attack the bow wielder but her rapier was stopped by two long swords carried by two bald twins. They swung in unison and she leapt back; the bow wielder launched an arrow that nearly grazed her arm.

Esdeath flung her rapier like a throwing knife at the archer and took the twins by surprise when she charged at them with her bare hands. She backhanded one of the twins' longsword with her left hand and crushed his ribs with an uppercut. She felt her victim's lungs collapse, his heart bursting, fresh blood spurting from his mouth. His twin shouted in anger and stabbed her from behind. She ducked under the blow, turned and launched her feet, landing a brutal strike to his chin. His head snapped back; neck broken, and his longsword clattered to the ground.

A woman bearing a nunchaku and a man with gauntleted fists came to her next. She leapt over the opposition and retrieved her rapier from the archer's corpse. The woman used that time to get close to the blue eyed general and engaged her in close combat. Esdeath felt her skills being pushed to the limits when the man joined the fray as well, drawing her attention to two sides of combat.

A third bandit threw a javelin at her, thinking she was preoccupied with the other two warriors. She made a nonchalant move with her hand, deflecting the javelin just enough that it struck the woman instead of herself. It buried itself in the woman's chest, and Esdeath used the break to take down the gauntleted bandit, slowing him with stabs to his legs and ending him with a rapier in his eye.

The rest of the bandits regrouped warily. It became apparent to them that she was no ordinary woman; there will be no more toying past this limit. The four remaining bandits advanced with a myriad of weapons.

And she danced the dance of death, a murderous tango with steel and bone. She became the personification of elegant sadism, rending limb from limb, separating head from body. None could withstand her, and she stood alone, victorious in the battlefield.

She smirked at the leader of the dead bandits.

Drugan clapped slowly.

"Bravo! That was quite the performance, girl." he spat on the ground. "It took me awhile to gather that bunch of idiots. You're going to pay for that."

"I'll turn your laughter to screams, old man." Esdeath smirked.

"I don't mind having fun with you later, pretty girl." Drugan bared his teeth. "Alive.. or dead."

The bandit chief unsheathed a massive two handed sword and let it drag on the ground. An eerie red glow emanated from the weapon, triggering a familiar feeling in Esdeath's mind..

_A Teigu._

"YOU'RE OUT OF YOUR LEAGUE, WENCH!" Drugan roared. "MEET MY TEIGU; INFERNAL BLADE - CALFACIO!"

The blade struck the earth between the combatants and part of the ground exploded in a geyser of flames, headed for Esdeath. She rolled out of the way and glanced back to where she was. The fire did not fade, nor did its intensity diminish. The bandit leader's Teigu must be similar to Rubicante - its fire can burn for days. To add to the problem, Drugan seemed to be a cunning opponent. He did not rush into battle like his foolish underlings did - he is content to holding his ground, feeling out her speed, her limits, forming a tactic to kill the lightning fast rapier wielder.

She must end the battle quickly before he sets the landscape on fire.

Esdeath braced her feet on the ground and shot out like a bullet, rapier in hand. His swordsmanship does not matter - the speed of her lithe rapier is sure to surpass his giant sword.

She sensed a twinkle in Drugan's eye and shifted her trajectory far enough to avoid a rising wall of fire surrounding the man.

Using her momentum to run around the Teigu wielder, Esdeath devised a method to defeat him. He swung his blade over and over, creating arcs of superheated fire that cut into the forest and earth around them. They were soon surrounded by a massive ring of fire.

Esdeath found herself growing slower and narrowed her eyes in thought. She revised her knowledge of fire. Fire consumes essence from the air, weakening those who walk through it. It also burns the ground beneath them, temporarily weakening the earth itself. She smiled and stopped her sprint mid stride, eyeing her opponent.

"What's wrong, missy?" Drugan taunted. "Tired? I CAN DO THIS ALL DAY!"

Another swathe of fire scorched where she once stood. Only, she was now airborne, leaping gracefully over the torrent of heat. She landed close to the bandit leader, swaying on her feet.

It comes down to a single gambit.

"YOU'RE MINE, BITCH!" Drugan cried out gleefully, swinging his flaming sword.

She moved imperceptibly to the right; the blade barely missed her face by a hair's breadth. The movement was enough to draw Drugan out of his stance and his foot stepped on a patch of burnt earth. It sunk to the ground and the Teigu user cried out in surprise. Esdeath laughed and sliced off the arm holding Calfacio.

"Tell the devil I said hi." she smiled, taking Calfacio from his severed, twitching limb. She stabbed his stomach - shallow enough that he won't bleed out too quickly, but deep enough that its fiery property took effect; the Teigu slowly cauterized his insides.

She slashed the handle of Calfacio, rendering the Teigu useless. She has no need for an Imperial Weapon of fire. It was too large and too unwieldy for her to use, so by logic she destroyed it. No longer could it be used against her.

Esdeath glanced back at the dying bandit leader, the corpses of his underlings burning in the distance. She leapt upon her air manta gracefully and took off into the air.

His screams lasted long into the night.

* * *

**A/N: So, ilidio brought up the topic of reviews and his concern about my commitment to the story.**

**Let me just say that I'm very grateful at the support I've received in this fanfic and will happily continue working on it daily. But I am not so infirm of a writer's esteem nor am I a ridiculously greedy review-digger that I would abandon the story to the whims of a potential troll or a lack of reviews. I've been on the internet for years. I've been to the YouTube comment section. I can handle negative comments. In fact, if they are constructive, I welcome them.**

**That said, I do understand your concern. The top story of a fandom close and dear to my heart, Frozen, has entered a sad period of hiatus because the author received hate mail for seemingly ignoring the story.**

**However, I really do love reviews. They spur me into writing more and keep me focused. It's just that I'm working on multiple fanfics that I'll definitely invest more time and effort on those that people like. I'm here to both improve my writing skills AND entertain you guys!**

**So tell me - do you have any ideas for the story and character interactions? I already have a plot structure in mind but it would certainly help to have some input from you guys!**

**Onwards!**

**-Deathwhisperer**


	4. Frozen Road

**A Frozen Road**

* * *

Another stab from her rapier and the air manta grew still.

It had done well in accompanying her in the last few weeks, but Esdeath had decided that she will remain anonymous until reaching the Capital to avoid the hassle of meeting the Revolutionary Army. Riding in on an air manta is far too ostentatious for her goal, and so she will have to walk on foot until she finds a more discreet method of travel. She will reappear with an iron fist and subdue it thoroughly. She has confidence in her skills, both as a warrior and as a leader, but if she were to face off the Revolutionary Army without a Teigu, it would be wise to have surprise on her side.

Esdeath looked far from the clean cut general she used to be. Where she wore tight fitting military uniforms with the top buttons undone, she is now clothed with an unassuming bearskin jacket under her boarskin cloak. Where she once had flowing blue hair, there are only short, trimmed locks. She smiled. This was the way the Partas clan lived in the north - wild and untamed. It felt good to experience the feeling of nostalgia her feral apparel brought her. It was the feeling of..

Home.

Esdeath quickly and methodically gouged out the air manta's eyes. They are the size of cannonballs and could be sold for a great price. As much as she loathed dealing in money, a form of currency she never had to bother herself with for most of her career, she must gain money in an inconspicuous way to avoid attention. Towns closer to the capital should have their own black markets - the only problem is how to find them.

She set off with a brisk pace.

Even when walking, Esdeath trains her observation skills. Long months in the Capital had earned her the ability to read people, but as a consequence her ability to assess the wild had suffered. She realized that when the thirteen bandits from three nights past had managed to get so close to her. During her travels across the Empire she would have sensed their presence coming from a hundred paces away, not a dozen.

She took in the gloomy forest of the twilight dark, monitoring every speck of light descending from the jungle canopy for movement. Animals were few and far in between, minor danger beasts flee the moment they sensed killer intent and the trees remain cold and aloof to the lone traveller traipsing through their world.

Her rapier training was especially brutal that night. She continued to practice until every hit was a culmination of perfection and accuracy, until every swing is certain to bring death and every stab is buried in the heart of her imaginary opponents. Teigu or not, she _is_ the Capital's Strongest; a warrior without mercy nor flaw.

Her blade sang a sonata of steel and prowess until the break of dawn.

* * *

Two days later, she arrived upon a worn gravel road.

It seems to be part of the highway trading system the Empire used to maintain during its golden age hundreds of years ago. Trade routes were locked in most of the outer rims of the Empire - there is no profit to be made when wild tribes and unruly mercenaries might attack at any moment. It was a tremendous blow to Capital economy. Their influence used to extend this far south, bringing in quarries and minerals from the Dasten mountains to the capital to be used for construction, but in the wake of the Revolutionary Army's rise such commercial happenings are long gone.

A commotion before her served to overturn that conclusion.

She halted and watched.

It was a small convoy of three caravans carrying several tons of mining ore. One of the vehicles were stuck in a pothole and a group of men were trying to push it out and into the road once again. It was evident that their efforts were in vain - the gravel ditch are impossible to clear out without mining equipment and the wheel is in too deep to be unscrewed and replaced.

Regardless, the quarry convoy marks the first few steps to the region's recovery from rebellion.

As much as she despises the Revolutionary Army's idealistic fools, she had to admit that it was impressive work to return the economic flow to this region of the empire in less than two months.

It was also something she would change the moment she returns to the Capital. She thrives too much on war on conflict to have peace get in her way.

That aside, none of the caravan's men seemed to have notice her yet. They were too preoccupied with freeing their cart to notice her, so she walked closer.

One of the men gave up trying to pull and threw his hands into the air in exasperation.

"This is impossible!"

"Well, I guess we'll have to leave it for the next caravan to take over." another said.

"It's a pity, though. We need to deliver- Hey, look!" a raven haired man exclaimed. He pointed to a silent woman standing still in the middle of the road, scrutinizing their group.

"Good evening!" He greeted her. Esdeath moved back involuntarily. She was not used to such warm welcomes. Everyone knew who she was, what she had done, what she is capable of. These peasants does not seem to recognize her at all.

"Hello." she said curtly. "You seem to be having a problem."

"Yeah, old Bessie here can't pull the her up." the man said, scratching his head. Esdeath frowned. The cow pulling the cart looks so old it should have been put down years ago. Her tribe would not never employ such an ancient and unwieldy animal to bear the burden of their valuables. That's simply asking for trouble.

"Manners, Garren!" another man said. He appears to be his twin.

"Oh- Right- I'm sorry." the chastised man stuttered. "My name's Garren, and these grinning idiots over here are Bannen, Skiv and Tomas."

"Why would you use such an old cow for such a heavy wagon?" Esdeath inquired.

"Bessie's all we have, Lady." Gannen said with a tone that made it seem like he took offense for the old cow's sake. "We're not exactly rich people."

"Hey, watch it!" Bannen hissed, elbowing Gannen in the side "You're talking to a lady!".

"I know what I'm doing!" Gannen countered.

"You just want to get in her pants!" Bannen accused.

"And you don't?" Gannen replied shamelessly.

They continued bickering and Esdeath suppressed an overwhelming desire to skin them alive.

A handsome young man walked up to her and offered his hand.

"Sorry about that - they're always like that. Brotherly affection and all that. I'm Tomas. Pleased to meet you!" he grinned. But when she saw into his calculating eyes, it was evident that the smile was forced. His sickening smile is similar to that of the prime minister's - the smile of a man who understood the nature of the world and will not hesitate to use others for their own good.

She did not take his hand, but the young man did not seem offended at the least. He shrugged his shoulders. "Caution. I respect that. If I may ask, why is a beautiful young lady such as you walking down the southern highway alone? These are bad times. It's not safe."

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself." Esdeath said, raising part of her cloak, revealing a glimpse of her rapier. "And flattery will get you nowhere."

"If you say so." Tomas conceded. "May I offer you a place in our convoy? It's not much, but it's faster and far better than travelling alone. Besides, I'm sure you can use some.. company."

He smiled suggestively.

Interesting. He is similar to her - they know exactly how good they look and uses their charm to get what they want. An admirable and useful trait in this deceptive Empire. It would be enjoyable to experience further conversations with this person.

Esdeath considered her options. If she were to decline, she would have to wait further to acquire a decent mount to herself. Taking into account the shoddy local economy, she won't be able to find a good ride until a few more weeks' worth of travelling. If she were to decline, she will no longer have any need to hunt and the length of her journey would certainly be shorter.

Besides, it would be an interesting experience, blending in with these peasants. Her father had taught her that knowledge and experience, used in the right way, can be as deadly was a blade or an arrow. A good huntress understands how her prey sees the world, and therefore how to catch it.

"Very well." Esdeath said. "I accept."

Tomas smiled again and moved to turn away but gasped as he found himself staring at the tip of her rapier. The rest of his companions stopped bickering and looked on in horror. Esdeath grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and brought his face within mere inches of hers.

"But if you try anything," She flashed him another dazzling smile. Two can play such games, after all. "I'll feed your genitals to your cow."

Tomas gulped and nodded, his calm countenance shattered to pieces.

"Good." she said simply. She sheathed her rapier and the tension in the air lowered significantly, though the threat was still present. She started to walk towards the caravans but realized that everyone was still frozen on the spot.

"Don't worry, I have no intentions of any killing you." she assured them. She came close to Tomas's ear and whispered, ".._yet."_

"Uh, r-right." he stuttered.

Esdeath shifted her attention to the problematic caravan stuck in the pothole.

"Now.. You were having problems with this caravan, yes?"

They were still too shell-shocked to answer.

She placed her hands on the back of the cart and freed the trapped vehicle with one swift move.

Esdeath looked back to her newfound companions to find them staring at her, mouths agape.

She faked a frown.

"Is there something on my face?"

"N-Nothing." Garren said, looking at her warily. "Let's uh, get going."

They moved to their own carts, flashing peculiar glances at her every other moment or so. Tomas extended his hand to her once again, albeit hesitantly, to help her on his cart.

"There is no need." she said, leaping gracefully on the empty seat beside him. She could literally feel his anxiety exude from his body, which was breaking out in cold sweat. He glanced at her nervously.

Esdeath gave him a seductive smile and leaned closer to him.

He visibly cringed.

Excellent. She had not lost her touch after all. Out of all the methods she employed during her travels, sensual intimidation was her favorite.

The caravan continued on its merry way down the highway with the addition of one sadistic general behind its wheels.

The next few days brought a confusing set of experiences for Esdeath. She had lived her life as a lone wolf. The most social she ever had to be was when she was leading an army and, later on, the Jaegers. The most talking she would ever do is when she riled up her men for an upcoming battle.

All of her newfound companions seemed to have gotten over her impromptu death threat, with the exception of Tomas. He would shiver involuntarily whenever she got close, which delighted Esdeath immensely. There are many ways to torture a person that does not require breaking to skin. She would lean on him, allow the occasional touch and smile until he lowered his guard enough for her rapier to slice a thin red line on his arm.

He told Gannen to take over his cart and hid in the cargo for the rest of the day.

Despite the twins' constant bickering, Skiv never saying a single word and Tomas's cold shoulder (if she had her Teigu, she would make that a literal statement), she enjoyed travelling with the four miners. They remain relatively uneasy around her, but after a few nights filled with ale and slurred talking they grew used to her icy presence. In fact, their various scrapes, trash talk and rough insults reminded her of her childhood days in the Plains, listening to her fellow hunters' banter. They'd challenge each other to killing ridiculously powerful danger beasts alone, belittle the size of each others' manhoods, and generally tarnishing the idea of common sense.

One of those moments came when the twins played an absurd game of daring each other into doing idiotic things.

"Hey Gannen, I dare you to shove some rocks in a Treebeast's mouth!"

The following spectacle resulted in bouts of hilarious, gut-clenching laughter, a broken finger and intense swearing in a diverse spectrum of languages. They reminded her why evolution must continue - the weak and the brainless will eventually be eliminated to make way for the strong and the intelligent. Though her philosophy remains unchanged, she admitted that their antics were amusing, if nothing else.

Each night she would leave the camp to practice her swordsmanship. It was the one routine Esdeath would not allow herself to become complacent with. She would also review her knowledge of all known Teigu and considered possible replacements to her Demon's Extract. It was also then that she felt a slight twinge of regret for drinking the entire chalice.

On the sixth day they arrived upon a minor southern village, where Bannen and Gannen immediately started to unload their cargo. It was time for them to part ways, and even though there were instances that Esdeath nearly ripped apart the twins by their throats, she felt a slight degree of loss when they left to return the caravans to the quarries. Tomas and Skiv remained in the village to oversee the

It was a poor village in the middle of the mountains, simple and unassuming. She did not waste time and headed straight to the Elder's hut.

"Good evening, young Lady! Welcome to our village." he greeted her, putting down what seems to be tax paperwork on an old wooden table. "How may I help you?"

"I need a map of the region." she said. "I also need a whetstone."

"The whetstone is an easy matter, but I'm afraid we don't have an official map of sorts. If you would wait a few hours I can have it drawn for you."

"That would be fine."

"There's a traveller's hut a hundred paces down the main path. I'm afraid we don't have much to offer," the Elder gestured at his humble abode, "but we do have food and supplies with which you can refresh yourself with."

"Excellent. I will leave you to your duties, then." Esdeath nodded curtly.

Intelligent, diligent and well-spoken.

_He could do better with being a magistrate,_ she thought, walking down the snowy village path. Despite the village's relative proximity to the equator, its altitude warranted heavy snowfall. Most of the trees were dead, but even though living conditions looked grim, she was surprised to find most of the villagers looked relatively content.

_Ignorance is bliss, indeed. Only fools would be satisfied with-_

Youthful laughter stopped her train of thoughts and returned her to reality. She diverted her attention to a merry group coming down a forest trail.

It was three teenagers, walking side by side. Each of them were carrying a sack of produce. What set them apart from the other villagers was the assortment of weapons they had behind their backs. A messy haired boy with a headband around his head was playfully swinging his battle axe, and a girl with a bow and arrow strapped to her back seemed to be chastising him, telling him to stop.

But when she saw the third member of the trio, everything else in the world faded away. There was no sound, no sight, except for the familiar figure standing before her.

Those soft, brown locks of hair.

Haunting emerald eyes.

A bright, mesmerizing smile.

_Tatsumi?_

* * *

**A/N: And thus a plot appears!**

**If you haven't noticed, Esdeath have yet to realize that she not only managed to change locations, but change time as well. **

**Once again, I'm worried whether or not I'm taking Esdeath out of character. ****Please tell me about any spelling errors you may find. Either by review or private messaging I appreciate corrections very much. ****Oh, and review! I'm interested to know what you think about this approach into the story.**

**Special thanks to ilidio for being an awesome reviewer.**

**Have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer.**


	5. Winter's Crown

**Interlude - Plains of Frost**

* * *

In all her twenty four years, Esdeath had never seen another woman endowed with flowing blue hair like hers. Perhaps it was because of the nature of her parents' ancestry - she was the first of her kind, and most likely will be the last.

Her mother was a foreign woman, fierce of heart and skilled in the art of deception and manipulation. She came from beyond the eastern ocean, from lands none in the Empire had ever seen. Some say that it was her silver tongue that captured the chief's admiration and affection. They were a match made in heaven - the cunning snake and the ferocious tiger. Esdeath was born less than a year after their union, and the celebration of her birth was one of the most festive events in the history of the clan. She grew to be a fierce beauty - daughter of Ainze and Temujin, the pride of her tribe.

Three summers passed by. Ainze was pregnant with another child, and Temujin proudly declared the coming of their child.

Summer turned to autumn, and autumn to winter. With every passing day the tribe realized that it would be a winter of unparalleled cold, a winter of frosty days and frozen nights. Not even the strongest danger beasts dared to leave their caves and burrows. Green had all but disappeared from the world. Snow was taller than the tribe's largest teepees and they lost three teepees' worth of treasures and supplies in the constant hail and blizzard. A third of the tribe abandoned their northern home in favor of a warmer climate - the winter was beyond anything they had ever experienced. Four hunters were lost in the foul weather, presumably dead. Stores were running low and Temujin were forced to ration their food.

It seemed that they would pull through - two months had passed and Temujin's strict rationing had left the tribespeople with enough food to survive the winter.

And disaster struck.

A brutal fever struck Ainze in the coldest night of the winter. She had not seen the sun in many a moon, and though she was fierce of will her foreign ancestry was weaker and fragile than that of the hardy races who braved the north. She died the morning after, and the baby with her.

The whole tribe mourned, but Temujin did not shed a single tear. He looked on impassively at the rising pillar of flame that consumed the body of his love, and retired into his tent for the night.

The next day, the chieftain disappeared, taking Esdeath with him.

She awoke to the deafening sound of a Snowbeast stampede, and opened her eyes to see her father butchering the danger beasts with a murderous fury she had never seen him express before. The three year old was strapped to her father's back, and for three days and two nights she saw her father annihilate the entire herd. By the end of his rampage, thousands of Snowbeasts lie dead on the frozen earth. The taint of blood had seeped into the snowy landscape, bathing the immaculate white with crimson red hundreds of paces into every direction.

Despite her hunger, thirst and fatigue, she would never forget the words her father spoke that day.

"They were weak, Esdeath. Those beasts; the hunters that went missing - your mother. They were weak, which was why the died. But we are strong," he said, gripping her young shoulders passionately. "We are stronger than the winter, stronger than disease, stronger than those monsters. And that is why we will survive."

Instead of ensconcing his daughter within the safety of the camp, he strived to ensure her survival. He taught her everything he knew - every bit of skill, every piece of knowledge, every kind of weapon he could get a hold of.

"You will become a survivor unlike any other." he would tell her.

She lived with her father for seven summers - away from their clan, living in the northernmost edge of civilization itself. Temujin forged her into a prodigious warrior and skilled huntress.

On the day of her tenth year, the last of their travels together, Temujin brought Esdeath to the top of a mountain on northern edge of the arctic circle. The entire mountain was infested with high level danger beasts, dangerous terrain and unyielding blizzards. He told her to survive a full moon on the mountain, to prove her will and ability to survive. She stood alone as she watched her father descend the treacherous slopes with nothing but a week's supply of food, a white cloak and a hunting knife.

Temujin's return to the clan was not accepted by everyone. Another chief had taken his position during his absence - a strong and charismatic man called Hulagu ruled in his stead. He challenged Hulagu to a duel to the death for the right to lead the Partas clan. Hulagu refused, telling Temujin he would not lower himself to fighting a coward who ran away merely because his woman died.

He stood against the clan, a lone wolf among bears. He rallied those who remain loyal to him, those who still remembered his blade and prowess. The bloodshed that night was something to remember - it was the beginning of the end. Barely half their numbers lived to see the next day, and the Partas clan will never truly recover their strength. Temujin became chieftain once more. Hulagu had dealt him a long gash upon his forehead, and he wore a black headband to hide it.

A month passed.

Esdeath did not return.

Spring turned to summer, summer to autumn, and autumn to winter.

Two years passed.

It was a harsh winter day, and most of the tribe had gone northwards to hunt for prey. In their greed to find prey they stumbled upon a den of colossal danger beasts. Four of the arctic giants laid waste upon the tribesmen. Wounded and exhausted by the fight, Temujin was about to order a retreat. He was not as strong as the young man he once was - his moves grew slower and stiffer until he could no longer kill the giants by his lonesome.

And then she came.

A familiar figure with flowing blue hair appeared out of nowhere, stabbing and rending the danger beasts' flesh with incredible speed. The huntress wielded an longsword carved of what seemed to be the bones of a high class danger beast and she was cloaked with the skin of a mountain tiger. She mutilated their limbs, evading the frost giants' teeth and claws with ease. They swung and ripped at her to no avail. One of beasts breathed a frost breath, the danger beast's triumph card, and she did not move out of the way. Temujin cried out, fully expecting her to have frozen, but she raised her cloak and revealed a sadistic grin. Bits of frost and ice clung to her wild attire, but the cold did not harm her in the least. She proceeded to destroy the danger beast before Temujin and the others joined in the slaughter. Soon enough, the frost giants were slain.

Temujin stared at his daughter. Esdeath leapt off the body of the last giant before it collapsed to the ground, dead. She wiped her blade clean on the snow and returned it to an elegant sheath on her waist.

She had grown so much.

The tribesmen could hardly believe she was the same toddler who stole away into the night eight years ago. She is now twelve, and had bloomed into a ravishing beauty - her years in the wilderness had matured her far beyond her years. Her skin was pale and flawless, her bosom well developed and her hair remains as her most striking characteristic.

Esdeath spent the following years refining her skills as both a huntress and a warrior. Despite her victory over the colossal danger beasts, she was more of a huntress than a warrior. It was then that her father decided to train her in the art of the the rapier. She dueled her father frequently, and though she always lost every battle, their mock battles grew longer and strained her father more and more. It could be her increasing skills, or the burdening of his age, or both. Soon enough, she was able to win against any able bodied men in the tribe. Three months into her fourteenth year she defeated her father in a straight fight for the first time. Losing to her was never considered shameful - every man, women and children adored her. The young men wanted her hand in marriage and young women wished to emulate her.

The day of her fifteenth summer the Partas clan heard rumors about a herd of rare danger beasts migrating from the pole. It was said that their skin was covered with scales of equal brilliance to gemstones and their eyes surpassed the beauty of diamonds. Temujin scheduled a clan hunt to capture these danger beasts, but an ever eager Esdeath snuck away in the middle of the night to claim the glory of the first kill to herself.

She travelled for a week straight, nearly killing her horse on the way, but succeeded in finding the Auricum, the rumored danger beasts. She used her advantage of surprise to ambush and kill one of the Auricum. She chipped off its scales with her strongest knife and gouged out its precious eyes. Victorious, she waited for her father and the rest of her clan to arrive.

They never did.

The journey back was a long one, as there was no hurry for her to return, but ended with her dropping the satchel containing her prize and running into the burning remains of her clan.

The entire camp was ransacked. Their horses were gone, the teepees ripped apart, their treasures stolen. Countless bodies littered the ground, missing limbs and pouring blood. The scent of steel and blood was still fresh - it has been less than a day since the battle took place. She found her father amidst the wreckage, mortally wounded but willing himself to live to see his daughter one last time.

"Father." she said, taking the chief into her arms.

"Esdeath." he whispered, his voice coarse and broken. "Welcome.. home."

"Who did this?" she said, fire in her voice.

"The northern kingdoms." he said. "A revenge for our raiding. But we killed more of them than we ever had in the past two decades." he chuckled, pointing out at the bodies strewn across the camp.

"You were weak." she said, grief apparent in her voice. "You did not win."

"We were weak." Temujin admitted. "They were stronger, and that.. is why we lost. Remember that, daughter. Above anything.. in this world, power matters the most."

"I will, father."

He grabbed her with surprising strength and forced her to look into his steely eyes.

"Promise me this." he said. "That you will live. That you will become the strongest out of all of us. That you will _survive."_

"I promise." she said.

"Then, let an old man rest.."

He breathed his last.

A massive bonfire lit up the plains that night. Every remnant of her clan's existence vanished into the rising smoke cloud, and a lone figure disappeared into the endless plains.

* * *

**A/N: Props to whoever got the Genghis Khan references. You guys are cool.**

**I'm fairly certain the Partas tribe was based on the warring clans of Mongolia, which would explain constant battles among clans and the near fanatical principle of survival. The plains truly are a harsh place to live. Resources are scarce and a nomadic lifestyle is a must if they were to find enough resources to sustain the clan.**

**Review on! What do you guys think of my take on Esdeath's childhood? Was it accurate? Were there inconsistencies? Did you think there were more that could have been done?**

**Next chapter - Esdeath reunites with an oblivious Tatsumi.**

**Thanks for reading! Have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer.**


	6. Icy Reunion

**Icy Reunion**

* * *

She thought he was a product of her demented mind - a delusion of memories and regret. But the closer he got, the more of him she saw - talking to his two companions cheerfully, vocally reminiscing the mountain bear they fought that morning. Another teenage boy rubbed his head awkwardly when Tatsumi reminded him that he nearly pissed his pants off and lone girl in the group of three laughed warmly, playfully smacking him in the back.

The moment was frozen inside her mind. The dead bark of winter pines, the scent of evergreen in the air, the faint outline of the afternoon sun whispering rays of light through the clouds. The soft snow yielding underneath her boots, the breath of frost she exhaled into the air. For it was that moment that she realized beyond certainty that the young man before her is, without a doubt, Tatsumi.

The green eyed youth looked as happy as ever. His cloak is in tatters, his clothes looked old and worn, fresh bruises and scars covered his arms, but the youthful passion he exuded was unmistakable. The first man she ever fell for, the first man she felt regret killing - alive and well.

Just like he should have been.

_Without her._

"Tatsumi?" Esdeath whispered. Her body tensed, cold palpitations travelling through her limbs. A myriad of memories passed through her mind - the first time she saw him smile - their first kiss in her bedroom - her anger at his escape, tinged with a hint of admiration - their time together at the island, the happiest moments of her life - his resolute refusal against her proposal, unyielding even within the cell in the heart of the palace.

_Her blade, sinking straight and true, drawing the last breath of life within._

If Demon's Extract still flowed within her blood, the entire mountain would have been encased in chilling ice.

_I guess you are heartless, after all._

"Did you.. say my name?" Tatsumi frowned, stopping in front of her. It seemed that he had heard her near inaudible voice call out to him. His friends stopped as well, looking at the former general with curiosity.

"How are you alive?" She whispered again.

"We're sorry - can you speak up?" the girl asked.

"D'ya need help?" the other boy asked, his flirtatious grin barely restrained.

"Yes. I do."

The ground beneath her exploded as Esdeath charged at Tatsumi. He barely had time to react before finding himself painfully pinned to an ancient pine tree a hundred paces away from where he stood, icy blue eyes staring into his soul. Her hands gripped his vest with incredible strength, and his sword was pinned uselessly against his back.

"I KILLED YOU!" she shouted, shaking him violently. "I SAW YOU DIE! SO TELL ME, _TATSUMI_, HOW ARE YOU ALIVE!?"

"I'M SORRY! I DON'T KNOW YOU!"

"What did you just say?" Esdeath hissed.

"I-I-Do I know you?" Tatsumi stuttered.

Her grip loosened and he slumped down to the base of the tree. His back was throbbing with pain but he looked up towards his assailant. Her face was cast in shadow, sky blue eyes turning dark.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF OF HIM!" the girl shouted in the distance, an arrow nocked on her bow and aimed at the blue haired woman. The other boy drew his battle axe and moved cautiously towards her as well, eager to defend his friend.

"Is that how you want it to be?" Esdeath whispered again, her entire body frozen rigid.

"I'm.. sorry." Tatsumi said. "But I really don't know you."

She looked into his eyes, and saw that he was speaking the truth. What he believed was true, anyway. Her eyes narrowed in thought. Can Incursio resurrect its user? Is that how he lost his memories? No. No Teigu could bring back the dead. It was something they all knew. He should not be here. He should not be confused, should not be so.. thin, so poor.

Something is wrong.

Her mind flashed back to the frozen dimension she travelled through two months prior.

She had teleported through space in a matter of minutes, yes. She could deduce that much. But could something else have happened?

_The blazing sun. _

_The iridescent moon. _

The reversed paths they took on their journey across the skies, the brightening and dimming of the stars.

_Blue starfall._

_Beryllium lightning._

The drain of power that resulted in the loss of her Teigu.

And she understood.

"Tatsumi." she said.

"Y-Yeah?" the young man mumbled.

"Fight me."

* * *

His eyes furrowed and she drew her rapier from its sheath.

"W-Wait, what?!"

"If you hold back, I will not hesitate to kill you."

That was all the warning he received before Esdeath charged with ungodly speed and swung her rapier so hard it was all Tatsumi could do to block it. The block sent him skidding a dozen paces away.

Esdeath heard a hissing sound and tilted her head just in time to avoid a searing arrow, which passed by her hair with mere inches to spare. She turned to find Tatsumi's female companion eyeing her with anger, another arrow already nocked. The girl fired a split second later, and Esdeath used her lightning fast reflex to grab it in midair.

In a show of intimidation, she crushed the wooden arrow with her bare hand, but a huge battleax prevented her from fully enjoying the moment - the second boy had swung a fast yet powerful blow with his axe. Speed with the axe is an unusual sight - most axe users rely on relentless bashing to get their results. She blocked his overhead blow with the guard of her rapier and took to the air to avoid an arrow aimed for her legs. Two more followed in rapid succession, one of which she punched out of the air and the other was halved by a skillful slice of her rapier.

_Deadly teamwork. _Esdeath thought. _So these are the people he trained with. No wonder he became exceptionally strong. I am certain they never joined Night Raid, so where were these two?_

Her train of thought was stopped by a familiar green eyed warrior and his sword, arcing with a skillful swing. She deflected it with her sheathe and leapt back, snow dissipating under the friction of her boots. The snow around her exploded as she charged at him once more, but this time he was ready for her. He used his own sheathe to double his defense against her rapier, and instead of skidding away, this time he held his ground. Fierce emerald eyes stared back at her, not a speck of fear within. Another overhead swing from the battle axe stopped her from continuing her assault and a trio of arrows fired all at once forced her back.

She looked up to see the three of them standing in a staggered formation - Tatsumi taking the lead, sword ready in a defensive stance; the axe user behind him, ready to take over or assist when needed; the girl a safe distance back, providing covering fire and ranged support.

_Splendid. _Esdeath smiled. _Three talents hidden in a remote village like this. What are the chances?_

The answer to her conundrum was time. Somehow, someway, she managed to overturn the endless march of time. Considering the brown haired boy's lesser skills and the fact that he has yet to leave his village, she would guess she was in a time period prior to her northward expedition to extinguish the Prince Seika's rebellion.

But Esdeath needed more information. The priority is to find out the exact date and time, to find a way to get inside the capital unnoticed and most importantly - whether or not she has a twin running around. The thought of another Esdeath, a more brutal, crude sadist mirroring her own, was slightly disturbing. She didn't let it show.

"Well done." she said, sheathign her rapier.

"Huh?" Tatsumi stared.

Her compliment took the three fighters by surprise, but they followed her suit. The bow was strapped, the battle axe lowered and the sword into the sheathe. There was a period of silence in which Esdeath analyzed the three of them, and they looked at her warily, ready for another fight if necessary.

"Tatsumi."

"Yeah?"

"Come with me."

"Like hell he is." the girl snapped.

"I promise no harm will come to him." she said. "I'll even leave my rapier with you in good faith, provided no harm will befall it."

"Who are you?" Tatsumi asked. "How did you know me? Why are you doing this?"

"Come with me and you'll find out." she said, tossing her rapier towards the girl. She caught it in mid air and checked its craftsmanship - her eyes widened when she realized the quality of the blade.

"Let's go." she said, beckoning for Tatsumi to follow. He did, albeit hesitantly. His friends moved to follow but Esdeath raised a hand.

"Alone."

"Why should we let you?" the axe wielder said. "You tried to kill him just now!"

"If I wanted any of you dead, you would be dead by now. In case you haven't noticed, I was holding myself back." she said coldly.

"As if!" the second boy scoffed. "We were awesome! Right, Sayo?"

"No, she's right." the girl, Sayo, admitted. "Her first charge on Tatsumi was faster beyond anything I've ever seen. The moves she used afterwards were significantly slower in comparison."

"You are perceptive, girl." Esdeath said. "Hone that skill. It might save you in the future."

"It's okay Sayo, Ieyasu." Tatsumi reassured them. "I'll be fine. Besides, she's unarmed, right?"

He gave her a hard stare.

Esdeath sighed and took out her hunting knife from the inside of her boots, a shiv from her belt and the sharpened belt buckle itself. She tossed them to the axe wielder. Unlike his female companion, he failed to catch them and they clattered to the ground in a small heap of deadly steel.

"Alright." Tatsumi said, a serious expression carved on his face. "Where do you want to go?"

She moved towards a dense pine forest wordlessly and he followed.

* * *

"So.. how did you know who I am?"

_Silence._

"Who are you?"

_Nothing._

"Why are you here?"

Winter cicadas croaked.

Tatsumi groaned. The woman was an enigma to him. Her temper was short, her mental faculties seemingly unstable, and her moods shift like the unruly weather of the southern seas - full of gray clouds one minute, sunlight the next, and a full fledged hurricane after. She nearly killed him in their little bout a few moments prior, despite her claims of holding back, but now she was pulling his hand and leading him through the dense foliage. Her skin was hard, yet soft; calloused, yet smooth. It added to the growing list of mysteries the woman seems to surround herself with. Be it her ice blue hair, the animal skin cloak she wore or the stunning beauty that belied the fierce warrior within, Tatsumi felt uneasy around her.

They arrived upon a small clearing, an oasis of undisturbed snow among the black wood of the pine forest. The woman sat upon a decapitated tree trunk and Tatsumi followed in suit, albeit sitting a few meters away from her. She frowned and scooted closer, much to his discomfort.

The sun was starting to set, its fading rays reflecting shades of red and purple. Mountain birds took refuge inside their nests on the tallest branches of trees and a soft, chilling breeze wafted over the two of them.

And even then, silence. The woman did not move an inch, and the unblinking stare she was sending his way was creeping him out.

"Why are we out here?" Tatsumi said, clearing his throat nervously.

Still nothing.

"Are you always this cold towards people?" Tatsumi complained aloud.

To his surprise, the blue haired woman threw her head back and laughed.

"Still the same, I see." she said, looking at him fondly.

"Like I said, how did you know me?" Tatsumi asked, still confused. "I don't think I've ever seen you-"

The woman cut him off with a passionate kiss.

His mind swirled around in a fog of pleasure and daze. Tatsumi is a normal teenage boy. Although his libido is significantly less than Ieyasu's, he wouldn't mind making out with a beautiful woman, one with tremendous.. assets.

However, he still had qualms about being kissed out of nowhere and without warni-

_Is.. is that.. tongue?_

He broke out of the kiss and scurried backwards breathlessly. The woman simply looked at him with affection and sighed heavily.

"W-W-Why did you do that?!" Tatsumi shouted, voice quivering with confusion.

"It's been awhile since we kissed." she said.

"I told you I don't know you! And I sure as heck would've remembered my first kiss, especially if it was with a woman like-"

He blushed crimson and stopped mid-sentence as the foreign woman enveloped him with a tight hug and caressed his hair tenderly.

"I will not let you go again." she whispered seductively into his ears. They, too, flushed red. Tatsumi pushed her away hesitantly and looked to the ground in embarrassment.

"At least tell me your name." he said.

"Esdeath." she replied firmly. "Esdeath of the Partas Clan and the Capital's Strongest."

"The Capital's Strongest?" Tatsumi frowned.

"Yes, it means the strongest soldier in the empi-"

"I know what it means, but.. I've never heard of you before." Tatsumi said. "The only person I've heard of with that title is High General Najenda."

Esdeath visibly froze.

"Repeat that sentence."

".. the only person people call the Capital's Strongest is General Najenda. "

She stepped away from him and cast her gaze downwards in thought. The cold breeze died down and night descended fully upon the mountain slopes.

"But you're pretty good, too!" Tatsumi tried to reassure her. "I'm sure you can be as a powerful as-"

A disturbing giggle came from the woman.

"Are.. you o-"

She unleashed a coarse, broken laughter that rang out across the mountain valley like morbid echoes. The skyblue orbs of her eyes darkened considerably and her laughter finally ceased. The faint moonlight outlined the soft features of her face and highlighted her beauty. A malevolent smile formed upon her lips.

"_Interesting._" she hissed, gripping the hilt of her rapier. "_Very _interesting."

Something inside her eyes unnerved him; whether it was the barely concealed bloodlust, the predatory aura she emanated or her hand, twitching on the handle of her weapon, he couldn't tell.

She shifted her gaze towards him, ice blue eyes staring into his soul.

"You ask me who I am, Tatsumi." she said. "I am the most powerful warrior you will ever meet. And you.."

Esdeath wrapped him in her embrace once more.

"are _MINE_."

* * *

Esdeath considered possible repercussions of telling Tatsumi the truth.

The first and most probable consequence would be disbelief. There is no reason for him to belief in an outlandish tale told to him by a foreign woman who tried to attack him earlier in the day. She hasn't learned enough about the green eyed boy for her to use past knowledge to prove her case. The thought saddened her, and she resolved to find out more about him in the following days.

The second would be belief. She would somehow convince Tatsumi of her story. And then what? She had acquired sufficient understanding of the young man to

So she had settled on the third option - to say nothing. Any prodding coming out from the younger warrior was met with stony silence, and eventually Tatsumi relented. He seemed to have accepted that she would not divulge the information he wanted, and decided to stop his vain inquiries.

The four of them are currently inside a supplies shack located somewhere in the outer rim of the village. Tatsumi and his friends used it frequently to store their weapons and kills from the hunt. It was surprisingly spacious, and is furnished with a small table with four chairs. They were seated on said chairs - Tatsumi to her right, the axe user to the left and the girl directly across her. The silence that took over since they arrived was palpable, but she was content to wait for one of the others to initiate a conversation.

"So, um.. Esdeath, right?" the headband-wearing teenager to her left started. She identified him as Ieyasu, the axe wielder and Tatsumi's sidekick. His scooting closer to her and barely concealed attempts at flirting with the older woman disgusted her. "Where are you from?"

"A tribe to the far north called the Partas Clan." Esdeath said. "We lived by hunting high class Danger Beasts and selling their body parts. We also partake in raiding various caravans coming to and from various northern cities. Some years ago these cities decided that we are too much of a nuisance to ignore. My tribe was slain down to the last child, with me as an exception."

"Oh. I'm.. sorry." Ieyasu apologized, taken aback by her revelation. There was an awkward pause in which the three teenagers attempted to convey some sort of empathy, but the former general is having none of it.

"Don't be." she replied nonchalantly. "They were weak, and so they died. I am strong, and so I live. That is the way of this world."

"That's not true." the bow-user, Sayo, challenged. "We can all live better lives if the strong helps the weak. Physical strength isn't the only kind of power in the world. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. True, some more than others, but it doesn't change the fact that we can all live peacefully."

"I am surprised such naivete can exist alongside your intellect." Esdeath scoffed. Sayo tensed at the insult. "I assume you've never been to the Capital's slums."

".. No." Sayo conceded.

"They are full of cut-throats, thieves and lowlives of the worst degree. They are nothing more than insignificant parasites. They always have been and always will be."

"But I'm certain that things can change." Sayo reasoned. "They're probably the way they are because the state the slums are in, right? If we send some help maybe then-"

"Are you familiar with the Path of Peace?" Esdeath cut her off.

"Yes, they're a peaceful religion. I think our Elder is one of them." Sayo said.

"Then let me tell you a bedtime story. Two years ago, they sent fifty Brothers and Sisters into the slums, escorted by a few hundred of the Garrison's finest. Two weeks later, Three of the Sisters came back, along with a dozen guards. The sisters were raped and cut beyond the point of recognition, but they are still alive." Sayo gasped at the vivid description of the slum's atrocities. "It took me awhile to track them down, but I eventually found their torturers."

"W-What did you do with them?" Ieyasu asked.

_To learn how they did it. How they could mutilate their victims' bodies to such an extent without killing them. I used my own methods to wring theirs from their throats. The torture chambers are home to me, second only to my bedroom in the Imperial Palace._

Long ago she would have voiced her thoughts aloud with confidence and watch those listening cower in terror and fear, but she have decided against it. It would only serve to add animosity between her and Tatsumi. It will take time and cunning to convince the inexperienced youth of her philosophy of the world, but time, for once, is something she has plenty of.

"I made sure they were properly dealt with." she said vaguely. Sayo narrowed her eyes. "My point stands - some people are simply parasites, disgusting vermin with no hope for change. Those who try will only get themselves killed, and it would be a pity if a talented warrior such as you to fall prey the same way as those fools."

"I don't agree with you." Sayo reiterated.

"If disagreeing with things makes them untrue, then much of this world's problems would have disappeared, girl." Esdeath laughed.

"You've been to the Capital?" Tatsumi said, trying to shift the conversation into a more pleasant direction.

Esdeath paused and phrased a careful reply.

"Yes. Several times."

"You said you hunted down those criminals." Tatsumi continued. "Does that mean you're part of the military? A captain, maybe?"

"I will be." she said confidently.

"That's great!" Ieyasu exclaimed. "We've planned a trip to the Capital in three days. As you can probably see, the village ain't doing so good, but I'm sure we can get places in the infantry and send home a lot of money! Since you've been to the Capital, I hope you can-"

"We don't need your help." Sayo snapped. "We can make the trip on our own. Right, Tatsumi?"

She was surprised when he didn't reply right away like she expected. He looked as if deep in thought.

"What a coincidence." Esdeath said, leaning back on her seat "I'm on the way to the Capital myself. I am familiar enough with the military that I can assure you high ranking positions if you were to join me."

"Are you sure you can help us become officers?" Tatsumi said, fierce green eyes staring at hers.

"Of course." she said. "You saw my skills with the rapier yourself, did you not?"

Tatsumi seemed to consider her offer. Sayo looked on in disbelief.

"_Tatsu-" _she started, but he raised a hand and stopped her.

"Promise me that you will make us officers." he said.

_He still thinks promises mean something. He truly is Tatsumi. _Esdeath thought.

She raised a hand to her chest.

"I promise." she smiled.

"One more thing."

Esdeath frowned. _What else could he possibly want?_

"I.." he actually looked embarrassed. "I want you to mentor me. To fight, that is." he said.

"Tatsumi!" Sayo shouted. "You can't make decision like this without us!"

"Sayo, think about it!" Tatsumi retorted.

"I agree with him." Ieyasu said. "We need her help. The Elder always said to never turn down help when offered."

"I think this 'help' will bring more trouble than good." Sayo insisted.

"Make your decision, Tatsumi," Esdeath said, looking annoyed, yet in the inside, she smiled inwardly. She can see the gears turning in his mind, and it was in favor of her wishes.

"Very well. We will come with you." Tatsumi said, standing up. Sayo looked as if she was about to explode in anger, but Tatsumi continued. "With one condition."

"Name it."

"Sayo gets to hold your rapier."

Esdeath's eyes narrowed in anger.

"You tried to attack me this morning, and regardless whether or not you held yourself back, we're not taking any chances." Tatsumi reasoned.

The delighted smile she presented him with took the three teenagers by surprise.

"Splendid negotiating, Tatsumi." Esdeath complimented, tossing her rapier towards the younger girl for the second time that day. Looking at the green eyed boy, she extended a hand towards the prodigious youth. "Then we have a deal?"

"Deal." he said, shaking her hand. She suddenly multiplied the force behind her grip and pulled him across the table.

"If you try to run away from me again.." she whispered softly into his ear. "I'll raze this village to the ground."

She released him before the others could intercede. Tatsumi stood there with a haunted expression of his face.

"Have a good night's sleep." she said, leaving the shack with a malicious smile on her face.

_You'll need it._

* * *

**A/N: It's finally done. It's the biggest chapter yet (4k words - not that big compared to other fanfics but it's pretty big to me), and it was pretty difficult for me to write. I hope it fulfills your expectations, but in case it didn't *hides behind riot shield*.**

**At least keep it at rotten produce and the occasional egg. Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles are unwelcome, but expected.**

**[IMPORTANT NOTE] I'm looking for a Beta Reader of sufficient skill and dedication to help me make Frost the best story it can be, the kind that you guys deserve. Please note that my house's internet provider blocks the fanfiction website, and I can only do this using a proxy. Said proxy will not let me see your profiles or directly message them (I can do that in school, but it's closed for the holidays), so you need to PM me first so I can reply.**

**Review replies!**

**IAMGinny: There you go! I hope it fulfills your expetactions!**

**ilidio: Foreshadowing is one of my weaknesses. I hope to one day be able to send chills up my readers' spines with death flags and cruel cliffhangers.**

**BlackDisciple: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!**

**cerealkiller49: I can't guarantee perfection, but here it is.**

**StorSpeaker: As clarified, just one.**

**PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW 3**

**And if you like a lighter story for the AGK world, check out Lollipops, Headsets and Other Eccentricities.**

**Have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer**

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	7. Bitter Tensions

**Hi everyone! I'm sorry for the delay, but it IS only a few days away from New Year's and I'm travelling with my family, making consistent writing and uploading difficult.**

**I'd like to take a moment to say how amazed and happy I am at the support and criticism you guys are giving me. They are all constructive and I take each and every one of your reviews to heart, even if you're a guest. I can't ask for a better audience and I promise I will continue to do my best to write and entertain you guys!**

**Without further ado, here is the next installment of Frost!**

* * *

**Bitter Tensions**

* * *

"How long do you think it would take to get there? You know, since you've been to the Capital before?" Ieyasu asked, swaying slightly on top of his pack mule.

"Shorter than the time it takes for me to cut off your head the moment you ask that another question." Esdeath coldly replied, speeding ahead on foot.

Ieyasu sighed. He had no idea what to think about the woman.

Ever since the moment they met, every attempt to initiate a conversation on his behalf has been met with either stone cold silence or condescending derision. Even his lighthearted tries at flirtation were completely ignored.

But the most disturbing fact about the woman was her ruthlessness.

She is, above all else, a remarkable warrior. He's never seen anyone beat Tatsumi in his own game, yet she did it with such ease and grace one might as well think that she was the master and he was the pupil. He and Sayo are powerful fighters in their own rights, but Tatsumi has always been able to trump them both, however small the margin. He was faster on his feet, quicker still with his mind, and was able to make calls and commit maneuvers that had saved them many times in the harsh hunting life on the mountains. Tatsumi may be a bit ignorant, Sayo takes things a little too far sometimes and he concedes the fact that he is a little too perverted and slow for his own good, but there was a reason they were chosen by the Elder to represent their village. They were strong - that they knew, always have, throughout their lives. They are to one day return prosperity to their desolate hometown. It was pretty much what they practiced for their entire lives.

Yet the foreign woman was on a whole other level. She managed to defeat the three of them, the best their village has to offer in terms of talent and skill, without even breaking a sweat. What's more, she was holding herself back as she did so - even Sayo admitted that. Almost ten years spent training together, hunting danger beasts known to have overwhelmed whole teams of hunters - and they were easily matched and outclassed by a single woman.

Ieyasu clutched the handle of his battleaxe with a shaky hand.

He will become stronger. That was what he promised his father on his deathbed, the reason he took up the battleaxe that was his family heirloom and trained with it every day since he was six.

Ieyasu often lost mock fights with Tatsumi, and so he is well acquainted with the feeling of defeat, but Sayo definitely took it harder. She rode at the back of the group, eyes downcast, an obvious burden weighing down her shoulders. Every now and then she would send a hateful glare towards the blue haired woman at the head of the group. She has yet to understand Tatsumi's decision in joining Esdeath on the journey to the capital was sound - the sooner she understood that, the easier this trip will be on all of them.

Ieyasu reined in his pack mule, slowing its pace, moving back to talk to the bow user.

* * *

Sayo was furious.

They were not, in true nature, defeated by the blue haired woman, as all three of them remained standing by the end of the fight. What enraged her so was not the fact that they were outmatched and caught offguard - they were bound to meet stronger enemies in the future and learning to deal with ambushes is valuable experience - but it was the fact that Esdeath held herself back. She had never fought an opponent so skilled that she could play them with such condescending ease. Moreover, she had somehow managed to sink her claws into her best friend and.. crush.

Tatsumi.

He rode ahead of her, just behind Esdeath. He had this haunted expression in his face, as if he saw a ghost. The foreign woman certainly wasn't one; no, the smugness of her smile and the sharpness of her blade were all too real to ignore. She yearned to understand the nature of their relationship but Tatsumi would cut her off every time. It hurt her more than anything else to know that he was keeping secrets from her. They practically grew up together - they were nakama, those whose bonds go beyond mere blood and ancestry. And to think that _she_ could ruin it less than a day after coming here..

Sayo gritted her teeth.

The woman had outright refused the offer of riding on one of the few pack mules the village has to offer, telling them that she would rather "crawl my way to the capital than to stoop so low as to ride on beasts of labor who should have been put down years ago". That stung her a bit more so than others. The village was poor enough as it is, yet she expected service befitting a godsdamned empress!

It is for the better, though. One less mule to ride with them on their journey is one more working for the village's freezing fields. Things were hard enough to begin with, and taking away such a rare and valuable resource would not do the village well at all.

For now, she walked calmly across the gravel road. She always hovered around Tatsumi, acting like he was part of her property or something. Sayo felt herself heating up with rage. The way she looked at him, like she was undressing him bare with her eyes.. she unconsciously grabbed the tip of an arrow from her quiver.

"Hey, hey!" Ieyasu said, riding to her side from the middle of the four-man column. "Calm down! Don't go around shooting anybody."

"Not anybody, just her." Sayo replied icily.

Ieyasu sighed.

"Look; I don't like her as much as you do, but you need to calm the hell down. Tatsumi's decision was sound. I agree with him."

"Of course you do, he's your best friend!" Sayo snapped.

"And I will follow him to the jaws of death, yada yada." Ieyasu rolled his eyes. "But whether you like it or not, we need help to get to the capital and what to do once we get there. She's been there before and you have her rapier in your rucksack. There's no need to get so worked up about this.

"She attacked us."

"Tested us, more like. Like you said, if she actually wanted to kill us she could've done so at the very beginning."

There was a pregnant pause that ended with a downcast Sayo, her anger dissipated.

"I still don't like it."

"I'm not asking you to like it." Ieyasu said, smiling. He got through her after all. "I don't, either, but we still need to put up with it.

"If by 'putting up with it', you mean 'flirting your head off with overused pick up lines', no thanks. I'd rather cut off my own head."

"Hey, I'm just practicing my moves for the main arena in the capital later."

"Those moves are gonna send ladies running for the city guards. Or beat yourself up, like I usually do."

"_Please_. If you're a lady I'm the godsdamned emperor!" Ieyasu jested. His goal accomplished, he rode back to his place in the formation.

_But if she hurts Tatsumi, _Sayo silently added. _I'll kill her myself._

* * *

Tatsumi has no idea what to do.

Esdeath, the mysterious newcomer who attacked him unannounced; self-proclaimed Capital's Strongest; cunning seductress, taught him a whole new world of warfare - the kind that deals in the realm of the psychological.

She was supposed to be an ally, and he had tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. He invited her into their supply shack, a place formerly reserved to only the three of them, and asked for her help in practicing swordsmanship. He was not without caution, however - he insisted that she relinquish her rapier to Sayo. It was, if anything, a simple gesture of goodwill on Esdeath's part. Tatsumi is under no illusion about having the upper hand in this situation. He is certain she can reclaim the weapon whenever she wanted, but so far she had posed no threat to him or the group as a whole.

Except for that haunting whisper.

_If you try to run away from me again, I'll raze this village to the ground._

There was no coy playfulness in that threat. Her eyes bore into the depths of his soul with the promise of merciless vengeance. They promised the death of every single man, woman and children bearing the most remote and trivial relations to his being if he broke his part of the agreement, and ever since then it haunted her

Why? Why him? Who is she? Why is she here? Why did she kiss him? What did she want from him?

Dozens; no, hundreds of questions surrounding the enigmatic woman whirled around his head. But everytime he tried to pry, every time he insisted on knowing; even his most venomous strengths did not deter the unyielding mask she wore. He was forced to lie to Sayo, to Ieyasu, and that, beyond anything else, weighed him down. He had never kept a secret from any of them. They are all the family he had left. His parents were killed by danger beasts when he was little, and he grew up under the care of the rowdy village blacksmith. Ieyasu entertained him in his loneliest days and Sayo stayed with him through his lowest ones. Nothing hurt him more than having to lie to the two most important people in his life.

He told Sayo that Esdeath used to know his parents when they were still alive. He didn't recognize her earlier because they had both grown up so much. As for why she attacked him in the first place, he reasoned that she had heard his blossoming skills as a warrior and wanted to test out his mettle.

It was borderline flimsy, but further prodding from the bow user was met with sad silence.

* * *

Tatsumi's friends impressed Esdeath.

They are talented warriors, skilled hunters and loyal to a fault. She has nothing but admiration for the first two traits, but loathed the third. Absolute loyalty can get you killed. Its negative implications far outweigh the positive. She understood the idea of loyalty - she was loyal to the men under her command, though only to the extent necessary to keep them inspired and in line - but if Tatsumi was to survive this world, he would have to learn to reduce, if not break, his bonds.

She can see how long they have practiced fighting together. Living in the mountains is harsh living. She had first hand experience, as she had to survive an entire month on the frozen peaks of the arctic mountains. It was where her will was forged; her unwavering determination to survive that allowed her to overcome and take control of her former Teigu, Demon's Extract. A similar case happened to each of the three youths, albeit lower in intensity and reduced by camaraderie.

But then again, it has served them well so far. Perhaps letting them indulge in their bonds can work out in the end.

After all, they only have a few more days to enjoy such things.

It was apparent that Tatsumi was far more naive when he left the village than when they first met. She would have to teach him how to kill. From what she understood about him, he has yet to take the life of another human being.

She smiled maliciously.

_It's time that changed._

* * *

The evening of their first day together ended in a fight.

It merely took the simplest spark of an insult from Esdeath to ignite the built-up tension. Tatsumi had asked Esdeath whether or not she wanted to set camp close to theirs. She replied with a remark about the stench of their pack mules and that she is going to sleep aboveground on the trees. Sayo took it as an offense to what their village could provide and the situation escalated into a full-blown verbal battle between the archer and the swordswoman.

In ended up with Sayo dared Esdeath into a fight against the three of them. Tatsumi and Ieyasu tried to intervene, but Sayo was too far gone to be reasoned with any further. They relented and decided that a fight was inevitable. Perhaps the results can help resolve the tension between their companion and the foreign woman.

The smirk Esdeath gave her was laced with delight at the unexpected challenge.

"Very well, girl." she said. "I accept. Shall we, at sunset?"

"I'm not the idiot you think I am." Sayo bared her teeth. "Twilight is a good time to fight an archer. No, we'll fight in the next hour."

Esdeath laughed with pleasure.

"How perceptive! Of course, it will not change the outcome of the fight. I think you know that."

"No, it won't." Sayo returned a bloodthirsty smirk of her own.

She tossed the rapier to the older woman and beckoned for her to follow.

* * *

They squared off on a snowy field a league away from the main road. The three teenagers stood on one side of the field, and Esdeath on the other, separated by a hundred paces of foot-deep snow.

"One more thing, before we start this fight."

"What?" Sayo asked warily.

"I won't be needing this." Esdeath said, smirking.

The blue haired woman tossed her rapier, sheath and all, to Sayo, who barely caught it before it hit the ground. She sent her challenger a condescending smirk before moving to the other end of the field.

"Sayo-" Tatsumi started, concerned for his teammate's temper.

"It's fine." She said icily, drawing her bow. "It'll make things easier."

The three youths fell into loose formation. Tatsumi stood side by side with Ieyasu, both their weapons drawn and at the ready. Sayo took a slightly uphill position a dozen paces behind and took an arrow from her quiver. On the other end of the field, Esdeath simply shrugged off her boarskin cloak, revealing her military uniform

_So she _was _in the military. _Sayo thought. _She'll understand conventional tactics. We need something else. Something unexpected._

Gears turned inside her head. What advantage does she have against the lightning fast warrior? It was hard to admit, but Esdeath is superior to each of them individually in every way. She even held her own against their three without unleashing her full force.

But then she stopped right

That's it. The full extent of their combat capabilities remains unknown to Esdeath. If she can take advantage of that..

Sayo nocked an arrow on her bow and drew the string to aim at the former general. The first shot will signal the beginning of the skirmish.

The arrows she was using were dull, ending with a stone arrowhead instead of a steel point. She uses them for training, but they still pack one heckuva punch, especially when used by an archer such as she. It was not boasting – it was understanding one's strengths and using it to its limits.

Her eyes narrowed.

_Like hell I'm going to lose._

The sharp _twang!_ of her bow sent her fletched arrow streaking across the snowy field and to the blue haired woman's waiting hands.

She grabbed it out of the air and broke it in the same manner reflecting their fight the day before.

Esdeath smiled..

.. and vanished.

* * *

_It was her third day on Atlas, the wild mountain range reaching to the roofs of the world. Magnificent peaks of white towered above the clouds, sloping down to steep cliffs and outcrops of granite._

_She was running._

_A pair of Saberfangs were after her, long sharp teeth bared, lithe legs pumping. They weaved through the difficult terrain with the ease of an animal born to live and fight on these mountainous slopes, pursuing a certain human girl who has yet to see her eleventh summer._

_She was weak, thin, exhausted, starved. Her clothes were in tatters, exposing her skin and body to the merciless cold of the north. Her hair was a tangle of blue tinged with the white of snow. Her breath fogged up in the air, a testament of the cruel temperatures she was fated to survive in._

_But there is one thing that she has left, one thing she can always depend on, one thing that has kept her alive and fighting all these years._

_Her will, unbreakable and absolute, to survive in this brutal world._

_Her eyes burned bright blue with unparalleled ferocity_

_Without a hint of warning, Esdeath somersaulted backwards._

_The beasts were caught unaware. They had lived for decades, yet have never seen their prey turn back to fight them, much less a starved human kitten whose ribs were showing._

_She landed on one of the Saberfangs, grabbing hold of the fangs outside its teeth. It snapped and bucked, trying to throw her off down the perilous cliffs of Atlas. She was, however, undettered – she held on to its fangs like a vice grip. When she felt it weaken she started bashing its eyes with both hands, sparking its rage anew. Blood and viscous fluids poured out of its eyes. Blinded, it thrashed around in a rampage. Esdeath let it go as it toppled over the edge of the cliffs, impaling itself on top of a dead pine tree._

_The other Saberfang looked at her with bloodthirsty eyes and roared, promising vengeance for its fallen mate. She screamed a primeval roar to match its own and they faced off once more, two beings forged in the bloodiest battlefield their world has to offer._

_She gripped the hunting dagger Temujin left her, concealed within the tattered remains of her cloak._

_If her father wanted her to survive her for a month, she'll do it for ten. She will prove to him once and for all that her blue hair was the only thing her mother left her. Not weaknesses. Not vulnerability. Not death._

_She is her father's daughter, and she will.._

_The Saberfang roared and lunged at her._

_..** SURVIVE!**_

* * *

Beyond anything else, the one thing that has kept Esdeath alive through all of her years was speed.

Her powerful musculature was, of course, important as well. But it was useful only in the event of a straight fight. There were many scuffles in which she was outmatched. Multiple encounters with various danger beasts had taught her that speed is the first and foremost skill a warrior must possess in order to survive. From flocks of Darkwings to the brutal stampede of the Thunderclaws, she had tempered her speed in the blacksmith of escape.

And now, she will use every ounce of it to teach that self-absorbed bitch of an archer a lesson.

Instead of charging straight at Tatsumi like she did in the previous fight, she circled the group of three, her feet pumping into the snowy terrain, raising snow everywhere she went. Soon she was but a blur of blue among a fog of white. She realized how much her hair used to weigh her down – she appreciated the fact that she can now move freely without risking her hair getting caught in something.

A few moment was all it took to raise a snow storm created from her pure speed and prowess.

From her peripheral vision, she saw them start moving.

Years of living in the endless snow of the north has graced her with the ability to see the vaguest shadows and smallest movement within the snow. Many of her people had fallen to the snowpit vipers who dwell beneath the ground. Her father had forced her to walk among entire fields of those snakes to train her eyesight. Locating three teenagers in the fog of snow was an easy task for her.

_You can win hundreds of battles, tens of thousands, but you can only lose __**one.**_

She zoomed in like beryllium lightning, striking fast and hard at the weakest and slowest member of the group, Ieyasu. Burdened by the heavier weight of his axe and naturally less aware than his companions, she kicked the wooden handle of his axe. It shattered under her momentum, and she could see the obvious expression of surprise carved into his face. She finished him with a sucker punch to the face and he toppled to a nearby snowbank, unconscious. Esdeath returned to the cover of the snowfog, completing the entire maneuver in less than a second.

"Dammit!" Esdeath could hear Sayo swearing. The bow user saw a hint of blue hair and fired at it. Three arrows flew, three arrows missed, and Esdeath's delighted laughter echoed across the snowfield.

_You think fighting in the light would make it any easier, didn't you, girl?_ Esdeath thought, circling around the remaining two combatants, eyeing the archer with disdain. _If the setting sun cannot give me the atmosphere I need, I will make the land do it myself._

Breaking away from the circle, she moved in for an offensive once more.

* * *

"Tatsumi!" Sayo hissed. "We can't fight in this fog."

"You're right. Let's move." He said, gesturing for her to follow. They dashed to the cover of the trees, away from the Esdeath's rampaging in the fields. Sayo strapped her bow to her back and took off, running up a length of a pine tree and grabbing on a staunch branch. The bow was drawn and an arrow was nocked a second later. Tatsumi stood guard under the tree, sword bared. She eyed the fading snow in the field, ready to fire at the smallest hint of movement.

_There._

Two arrows shot off in rapid succession, narrowly missing Esdeath's charging feet.

"Tatsumi!"

The swordsman did not have time to reply as the blue haired woman fell upon him. He swung in various combos, swinging, slashing and jabbing at his opponent, with the occassional kick to supplement his combat style.

"You fight me as if I am a danger beast!" Esdeath said, evading his blows left and right. "You have yet to learn how to fight a human."

"I hope I never have to." He swore, taking the initiative and going on the offensive. Esdeath ducked under a right hand swing and came up kicking, sending Tatsumi to the tree behind him. He had managed to raise his own sheathe to reduce the power of the blow, and jumped up to avoid a deadly punch. Esdeath's fist burrowed deep into the bark of the tree. The wood shattered under her strength. She leapt back to avoid Tatsumi's overhead blow, but took another leap to avoid being struck by a stone tipped arrow. She landed further back, thrown off balance by the unexpected arrow.

It bought Tatsumi enough time to do a powerslash to her shoulders. She had threatened his village and insulted his friends. The wound won't be fatal, but it should teach her that she cannot, will not push them around anymore.

Esdeath raised her head and bared her teeth in a savage grin.

His blade descended.

Esdeath shifted with inhuman speed and raised her right arm parallel to his sword. Her fist struck the blunt side of the steel and she literally punched the sword out of his grip. It flailed wildly from his grasp, landing a dozen paces away on the snowy earth. He looked at her with astonishment and she finished her combo with a quick burst of kicks to his legs. He collapsed to the ground, muscles temporarily locked.

With her love interest out of the way, it's time she finish off her challenger.

Esdeath looked up, but Sayo was nowhere to be seen.

Her eyes narrowed.

_Where could she be.._

A flash.

Only her battleforged instinct saved her from a crushing stone arrow in the head, but she did not move fast enough. As time slowed into a crawl, she saw a lock of her hair ripped clean off by the arrowhead. The arrow lodged itself in an adjacent tree.

To Esdeath's surprise, the archer is actually going on the offensive.

She moved in quickly, firing arrows as she did so. Esdeath moved exactly the distance she needed to avoid them, weaving through the salvo at a brisk pace. The arrows landed on the trees behind her, crumpling the wood.

_They're too slow, _Sayo realized. _Time to show the surprise._

Amidst the stone barrage, a single arrow ending with a simple sharpened wood streaked faster than the others.

Esdeath moved to avoid it like the others, but badly misjudged its speed. Now that the stone arrowhead has been removed, it flew twice as fast. It grazed the side of her cheeks, creating a thin line of blood. The wooden arrow shattered behind her.

Esdeath reached to touch the slow trickle of blood coming from her previously immaculate skin.

Sayo looked on smugly.

"You." She hissed. "You will pay for that, wench."

And disappeared.

Sayo glanced to her right just in time to see the raging warrioress slam into her side, breaking several ribs. She gasped a choked breath at the blinding pain, and tried to elbow her foe aside. Esdeath matched her blow with her knee, and Sayo could feel her bones crack under the force. They broke off for a split second before reengaging in close combat. Sayo had taken a steel edged arrow from her quiver and tried to ward the former general with it, but failed miserably as she took a vengeful kick to her chest. She flew back and struck a tree like Tatsumi did only a few moments before. She crumpled to the ground and coughed blood.

Esdeath was before her in no time, and Sayo found her neck choked by the foreign woman's hand.

"SAYO! NO!" Tatsumi shouted weakly from the ground. "IF YOU TOUCH HER I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Don't worry, Tatsumi." She smiled viciously. "I won't touch her skin, not at all."

Esdeath grabbed Sayo's long hair and brutally ripped them off her head.

The archer's screams went on for a long time, filling Esdeath's ears with music.

Tatsumi's heart broke when he heard his companion wail in hatred and agony. Her hair was butchered to pieces, its remnants barely reaching her shoulders, a mere shadow of the beauty it once was. Tears streamed from her desolate eyes, and she was gasping from the force of Esdeath's choke a moment ago. The blue haired woman stood victorious over the bow user, arms crossed before her chest.

"Count yourself lucky, peasant." Esdeath mocked. "You're the only challenger I've ever spared."

"Do you get it now?" Esdeath crouched over Sayo. She grabbed the withered remains of the girl's hair and forced the archer to look her in the eye.

"I am stronger than you will ever be. The only reason you're even alive is because your death would damage Tatsumi," Esdeath glanced away at the green eyed youth with a predatory smile. "and I have a special interest in making him mine. Just so you know.."

She leaned in closer.

"I took his first kiss in that forest."

Sayo's eyes widened in shock. Her breath hitched and her body stilled.

"He liked it, too, blushing red and looking away. You wouldn't mind me taking him, would you? Who knows, maybe I'll let you in on the fun.. But with your hair like that, I don't think he'd even want you anymo-"

Sayo wrenched herself away from the woman with a pained shriek and fled.

* * *

**A/N: It was hard to write this chapter, and I'm not too pleased with the result, but I hope you enjoyed it. The tension had to be resolved, and Sayo needed to learn that nobody messes with Esdeath and gets away with it.**

**If you are also following Lollipops, Headsets and Eccentricities, I think I will update sometime around the 31st. I'm about to head to a slightly remote location and internet will be wanting, so no guarantees.**

**Please review! Be it good or bad, I will take your comments to heart.**

**Special thanks to Dancingtuna, ilidio13 and Black Disciple for being awesome.**

**Merry Christmas and cheers to a coming new year!**

**-Deathwhisperer**


	8. Cold Hearts, Warm Hearts

Cold Hearts, Warm Hearts

* * *

_It hurt._

It hurt to see her in so much pain.

It hurt to see her distressed, frustrated, unhappy.

It hurt to see the look she gave him. Somehow, in the space of the split second before she ran away, she managed to convey everything she felt.

**Hopelessness.**

The way she scrambled away, dropping again and again in the deep snow.

**Fear.**

Her arms – firm, strong arms that never flinched, who used to hold his during his darkest days, were trembling like mad.

**Sadness.**

Her hair, which was once beautiful and long, admired by everyone she met, barely reached her shoulders.

**Anger.**

Her hands shook, her fists clenched so hard they drew blood – crimson droplets staining her snow-soaked parka.

**Confusion.**

The way her forehead creased, her eyebrows shift, as if her entire world had turned upside down.

But what hurts the most was her eyes.

**Betrayal.**

It was simpler than the others.

They looked at him with raw disappointment and emotion.

She trusted him.

And he failed her.

* * *

The blizzard grew stronger by the moment. Icy winds buffeted at her body, but Esdeath did not feel the cold. Instead, she relished and reveled in the freezing weather - she had proved herself as the better mate and the stronger warrior. But Tatsumi didn't seem to think that way at all. She glanced at him. He has yet to lift himself from the ground.

_I spared her._ She narrowed her eyes. _What more could you want?_

"Tatsumi." she cooed. "Let's go."

He did not move.

Esdeath sighed. "If it's about the peasant girl, forget about-"

"Why?" Tatsumi whispered. His voice was barely audible above the raging snow. Dark green eyes rose from the ground and gave her a blank stare. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because it will make you stronger." Esdeath explained blandly. "Ranged fighters like her are weak. Even your other friend can take her down if he had a little more brains than muscle. I move faster than her arrows. You have no need for a weakling like her. She will only drag you down."

"You want me to leave her just because she wasn't good enough?" Tatsumi concluded.

"You don't have a choice." Esdeath said coldly.

"No," Tatsumi said, rising from the ground. "I think I do."

Tatsumi walked over to his sword, almost completely concealed under the rising sea of snow. He pulled it out from the ground where it lay and raised it at Esdeath's direction.

"Oh?" Esdeath said. "You think you can beat me? You have potential, Tatsumi - but that's it. Potential. Besides, you're in no shape to fight right now. You're still far away from my league, but trust me, I can get you there."

"Beat you?" Tatsumi said, emerald eyes glinting. "I don't need to."

He aimed his sword at his own neck.

"Leave Sayo?" he said, steel in his voice. "Over my dead body."

* * *

"Enough with the charade, Tatsumi." Esdeath laughed with derision. "I know you well enough. You're not that stupid, nor are you willing to throw away your life like this."

A wave of snow exploded towards him and she was next to him in a split second. She wound her arms around him, holding him tight and possessively.

"You won't do it." she whispered into his ear.

He pressed the tip of the sword deep enough to draw a trickle of blood over his throat. Esdeath remained impassive. When he didn't move further, she scoffed.

"Enough. We are leaving." she said, grabbing his arm with a vice-like grip. His sword dropped soundlessly to the snowbank below.

He turned to face her.

"You love me." he stated. "I don't know why, but you do. You also value my potential. You're right - I won't kill myself." Esdeath smiled. She was pleased to know that she knew him well enough to call his bluff. Yet Tatsumi smiled on, and she frowned."But I can do this."

Tatsumi broke off from her grip, wrenching his arm so hard he nearly disjointed it. Only her surprise saved his bones from being broken by the grip. A dozen paces away, he drew a hunting knife from his belt and placed it over his right wrist.

"Move and I'll cut it off." Tatsumi threatened.

Esdeath gritted her teeth, taken aback by the sincerity of his threat.

"You would throw away everything you are for a peasant girl?" she said frostily.

"I am willing to sacrifice a limb or two for my friend." Tatsumi corrected her. "And if you think everything I am is contained in a pair of wrists, you don't know me at all. And if you don't know me at all, you can't possibly be in love with me."

A wave of jealousy overcame her.

He would go to such lengths for a weakling, a mere_ peasant._

She became a blur of blue and white and tackled him to the ground, forcing his knife away before it was able to do any significant damage. She guessed correctly - his bruised arm could not move fast enough and with enough force to damage his wrist before she got to him. Yet the knife had managed to wound him. Though small, it made one thing certain.

He was serious.

"I won't let you do something so stupid for someone so weak." Esdeath swore.

"You can stop me now." he grinned, knowing he has the upper hand. It is body, after all. "But you can't stop me forever."

Esdeath struck him in the back of his neck before he could retaliate, and he fainted with a weak gasp.

She smiled maliciously. It won't matter what he wants, she'll make sure he fulfills his potential. She'll keep him near her at all times, with her awareness he won't be able to wound himself. She'll make her his.. because she always wins in the end. That's right. She can never lose. It was what she lived for, what she was made for, what she was raised for-

He slumped in her arms, unconscious.

She froze.

_He glanced up at her, and through his bloodstained lips he said his last words._

"_You are a monster.. after all."_

The memory sent painful pangs in her chest. She lowered them both on the ground, cradling Tatsumi amidst the blizzard.

**Why?**

How can such _simple _words pain her so? The gods know she's been called far worse. She is a sadist; a ruthless, merciless mass-murderer. She is the closest thing to a reincarnation of death, the most powerful warrior who had ever walked the planet. She alone mastered the twisted whispers of Demon's Extract, and none had ever equalled her in recorded history. She can freeze oceans, massacre nations; stop the everlasting march of time.. and turn it back.

There was a time when she took pride in being called such things. In fact, she relished such insults.

But when he spoke it.. it wasn't an insult. There was no hate in it, no warmth, no emotion whatsoever. There is only truth - the truth that the only person she loved believed

She asked herself one more time.

_Did_ she want to win?

The answer was obvious.

She already won before.

_And it hurt more than any loss she could ever imagine._

She touched his cheeks gently.

In the end, he defeated her. He was right - forced unconsciousness is the only thing she could do to stop him from harming himself, and too much of that would harm his body like he wanted.

Is he worth her first defeat?

Esdeath stared at the young man ensconced in her embrace. He looked so serene yet willful in her arms.

"Sayo.. won't leave.." he mumbled. 'Esdeath.. no.."

It sent waves of jealousy through Esdeath, but the way he mouthed the words, the obvious affection in his tone, the warmth in his voice..

Esdeath wants him to say that to her. She wants him to willingly love her, for him to think that she was his world and for him to know that he was worth it. Unbeknownst to her, the perspective of the game they are playing changed in her mind. She did not feel as if she had lost - instead, it was as if she gained something. Something different. Something better.

Yes. He is worth it.

She kissed his lips softly. Even though his body was cold, his lips were warmer than anything she had ever known.

It would be the last one she would force on him. She brushed the snow off of his hair. If she were to receive further affection from the green eyed boy, it would be by his own free will.

To steal his heart would be her greatest challenge yet, for the battlefield of love is something she is unfamiliar with; untouchable by any weapon except the will of the heart.

And in that moment, regardless of what he had said or what will happen next, Esdeath knew she loved him.

* * *

"TATSUMI!" Ieyasu shouted, raising his arm above his head to ward off the ferocious blizzard. "SAYO!"

The cold bit into his skin and the snow had managed to slip inside his clothing.

_Damn, she hits hard. _Ieyasu winced, holding his pained torso where he had received the kick from the blue haired woman. He understood Sayo's rage since he also felt Tatsumi's distress under the foreigner's care, but challenging someone leagues above their level is reckless and served only to worsen the situation.

He sighed. He'll have to resort to..

"E-ESDEATH!" he shouted, albeit tentatively.

_Even if she heard me, she'll probably ignore me as usual, anywa_y, he thought.

If either one of his friends had won, they would've come and picked him up already. Or maybe they were too injured to move around too much?

For some reason, he was sure that Esdeath wouldn't do anything that would injure Tatsumi too badly. As for himself, he'd feel sore for a couple of days but she only went far enough as to incapacitate him for the rest of the fight - brutally efficient. But as for Sayo.. those two has been at odds since the moment they met. If the fighting went badly..

Better not think about it too much.

Ieyasu finally arrived at the edge of the clearing. He traced the path of the battle into the forest. He picked up Sayo's arrows - the intact ones, anyway. They were embedded into trees and lodged on the ground. He continued to move slowly, shouting his friends' names every once in a while.

_It's useless,_ Ieyasu thought, exhaling hard. His body was exhausted, bruised all over and the damned blizzard isn't helping either. He could barely a see ten paces in front of him - at this rate, he'll never find-

"_You._"

He perked up.

"_Axe boy."_

Ieyasu looked around feverishly, trying to locate the source of the sound. He saw the blurry silhouette of a woman with someone slumped over her shoulder. He trudged closer, battling the winds along the way, until he could see that it was Tatsumi.

Esdeath moved Tatsumi from her shoulder and shoved him to Ieyasu's direction. He caught his friend in his arms and looked at Esdeath in confusion.

"Take care of him." Esdeath said.

"Wait! Where's Sayo!?" Ieyasu shouted.

She did not answer.

A powerful gust of wind raised a wall of snow between them. By the time it fell, she was gone.

* * *

The blizzard had wiped any tracks the peasant girl had left, but she certainly left a trail.

The traces of her mad, cowardly scramble is easily noticeable. A broken tree branch here and there, skid marks on jutting rocks and a trail of churned snow lead Esdeath through the mountainous terrain, past dead pine trees and steep cliffs.

The girl is heading back home.

Every once in awhile Esdeath would stand still and breathe in the blizzard air. It is sharp, but familiar. It is cold, but warm. This was what it felt like, living in the north. The air is dry and freezing, the ground is treacherous and unforgiving, but these are rare times when she truly feels _alive._ Where others would have long succumbed to the cold, she can find her skin glowing healthily, her breathing calm and even, her arctic eyes piercing the veil of snow hundreds of paces away.

The girl somehow lived long enough to make these tracks. Living in the mountains must have given her a sturdy body. Esdeath knew the greedy ministers and corrupt politicians in the Capital wouldn't have lasted a minute in this weather.

That said, Esdeath's aptitude with blizzard storms is still far superior than the girl's.

She is the strongest human being alive - even her heritage had ensured her survival in the harshest places the world could offer. These paltry flakes cannot even compare to the raging climates of the north, where even ultra-class danger beasts fear to tread, lest they freeze solid.

The former general grudgingly gave the archer girl some credit, though. Despite her lesser heritage, she had managed to stay alive for so long.

_Hmmph._

Perhaps she can be of some use after-

_**BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWR!**_

The pines shook and the ground trembled under the pure force of the battleroar.

Esdeath tensed immediately - she recognized that sound. It belongs to Mountain Chimeras - poisonous danger beasts that hunt in packs. On any other day Esdeath would have stopped and engaged them - they would have made great slashing exercises, but the reason would be different this time - the next out of roaring was accompanied by a certain girl's scream.

* * *

She was running.

Running away from the boy she loves, from the woman she hates, from the friend she cares for. Running away from the fact that she is weak, and that he finds the woman more alluring than she. Running away from his desolate stare, her broken heart and that horrible, wretched feeling of being lost.

A blast of furious wind knocked her to the ground. The dead remnants of a pine tree cut into her clothes, drawing blood from her bruised skin. Strands of short, coarse hair, once silky and long, litter the ground as she scrambled against the headwind. All she knew before her flight was that she was heading south, away from them and to the home she'd always known, but it is now apparent that she has no idea where she is.

Suddenly, the desperate energy that fueled her escape disappeared. She sunk to the ground, leaning against a cold, hard rock. Her breathing grew shallow, her eyelids lowered, her sight dimmed..

**.. No.**

_Not yet._

_Not now._

_Not here._

_Not this way._

Sayo placed her hands on her sides and pushed up with all her might. She got to her feet, albeit swaying, and started to remember the survival experience she had amassed during her life on the mountains.

Find shelter.

She traced the rockwall she was lying on. It was part of a sheer cliff extending left and right as far as her eyes could see. There must be a cave nearby - there has to be.

Sayo continued down the cliffside. Her vision is getting blurry, her muscles ached with soreness and she couldn't feel her fingers and toes. The hollow feeling of betrayal in her heart was amplified by the hollow feeling of searing cold, like thousands of invisible little knives peppering her skin like rain, slowly taking away her senses as time went by.

Darkness descended.

The moon was full and bright, but its shine is barely visible in the wake of the blizzard. She tripped once, twice, five times, and then she didn't bother to count anymore because she was tired, so tired, too tired to think, only to walk, stumble, crawl, holding on to.. what? She doesn't know why, who, what she was fighting so hard for. She only knew the cold and the emptiness.

She fell one too many times and did not get up. The snow dug into her face, taking away the last stray remnants of warmth and energy from her body.

_Not like this.._

_Not like.._

Her eyes drooped.

She felt something, and they snapped open.

Then she felt the edge of a crevasse.

With a small gasp of relief she threw herself inside the opening,

It was warm. Warm and a little damp, but sheltered. Out of the cold, her numbed mind healed. Everything became clearer;

Wait.

_Warm?_

_Damp?_

She moved her hand around the small cave and felt shrubberies formed around.. eggs. Broken eggs. Their shells were scattered around her, the faint scent of dead fetus surrounding her, thick transparent fluids drenching her legs.

_A nest?_

_Of what?_

She heard a roar of anguish.

She turned to see an enraged danger beast lunging at her, fangs bared, tails hissing,

Sayo raised her arms above her head and screamed.

* * *

"SAYO!" Tatsumi awoke suddenly. He tried to move, but found his entire body paralyzed. He was barely able to breathe as it is. The green eyed boy scanned his surroundings, trying to look for clues that Sayo had returned.

He was in a small shelter of trees and branches adjacent to a dead pine tree. A ridiculously strong storm was brewing outside, and realizing how cold it was, his teeth began chattering. He was lying down on the hard ground, but safely ensconced in a sleeping bag.

"S-SAYO! IEYAS-SU!" Tatsumi bellowed once more, his voice shaken from the cold. A moment of silence worried him, but a reply was heard soon after.

"Tatsumi! You're awake!" he heard a familiar voice shout. Above the din and raging blizzard he could barely make out Ieyasu's figure from the veil of snow. He was carrying a pile of wood and branches. He came inside and blocked the entrance with the wood he had gathered. The cold diminished somewhat, and Tatsumi stopped shivering.

"Sayo, where is she?" he asked.

Ieyasu's expression hardened.

"I don't know." the axe user said "What happened after the fight, Tatsumi? This godsforsaken storm came up and Esdeath came up to me with you on her shoulders. She went away afterwards, I don't know where. I looked everywhere but I can't find Sayo either!"

"Then we have to go look for her!" Tatsumi said, gritting his teeth. He tried to lift himself up the makeshift bed, but groaned in pain and fell back immediately.

"No." Ieyasu said firmly. "We can't."

"Don't you care about Sayo at all!?" Tatsumi accused.

And he promptly received a sucker punch to the face.

"I DO CARE!" Ieyasu shouted, his body shook with frustration.. "BUT I'LL BE DAMNED IF I LOSE ANOTHER FRIEND IN THIS BLIZZARD!" There was a period of shocking silence where neither of them spoke. Ieyasu took a deep breath and spoke again, calmed down somewhat. "We _will_ look for her. I promise. As soon as the storm stops, we'll go out there and we won't stop until we've found her."

Tatsumi looked away, ashamed.

"She's my friend too." Ieyasu muttered.

"I know. I'm sorry.. and.. thanks. For saving me." Tatsumi apologized.

Ieyasu leaned back against the wall of the wooden shelter, eyes staring to the blinding whiteout outside. The wind battered against the makeshift shelter, frozen wisps of air travelling through the cracks. Ieyasu tightened his cloak around himself.

"Don't mention it."

* * *

When the chimaera bit her, it felt unreal.

Numbness spread throughout her body. She fell back, limp, and started gagging. The danger beast stared at her with pure rage, its lion head roaring, its goat head frothing, its swaying tail hissing.. _hissing?_ The tail ended with the head of a snake. It stared at her, its teeth bathed in blood. Her blood. She looked down. A pair of clean bite marks stared back from her hand.

The chimera reared.

It struck her with its paws and claws, breaking bones, ripping her flesh and drawing cold, oozing blood. She didn't have much of that to spare.

Yet..

It didn't hurt.

Shouldn't.. it?

The chimera bit down one last time. She convulsed.

As her consciousness faded, she thought she saw a hint of blue.

* * *

"I see them!" Ieyasu shouted.

Tatsumi jolted awake. He scrambled to the entrance of the cavern and strained to see through the whiteout.

Their figures were barely visible in the violence of the snowstorm, but he could definitely see them.

Ieyasu stepped out of the cave, waving his arms at them. Tatsumi followed. He hadn't slept since Sayo fled, but the promise of their return

Yet something tugged at his heart.. something was wrong.

Then he stopped waving.

Sayo was draped over Esdeath's shoulders. The former general's eyes were vacant, her expression neutral. His eyes drifted across their bodies. The blue haired woman was drenched in blood but unhurt. As expected of the rapier user. But Sayo..

Her parka was torn and ripped to shreds. Painful cuts, discolored bruises and long lacerations could be seen on her skin. Some were left exposed to the merciless cold as her attire had been reduced to tatters.

"No." Ieyasu said, leaning on the cliff wall weakly.

And then he saw it.

Tatsumi gasped.

* * *

_They were walking through a forest. He was crying. He didn't know where he was. All he knew was that he was alone. His family was gone, killed by the bad animals. And now he was walking to the home of a smelly blacksmith who was supposed to take care of him._

"_Don't cry!" Sayo said, frowning._

"_I.. I c-can't help it." Tatsumi sniffed._

"_It's going to be okay."_

"_How do you know that?" Tatsumi said bitterly. "You have your mama and papa! I don't have anyone. I-I'm -hic- alone."_

_There was a moment of silence between them. Sayo stopped walking and so did Tatsumi. Before he could say anything Sayo gave him a brilliant smile._

"_I'll be your friend." Sayo said shyly. "That way you won't be alone anymore!"_

"_Friend?" Tatsumi asked, unsure._

"_Friend!" Sayo confirmed._

_She grabbed his right hand with her left and he thought that maybe, just maybe, she can be part of his new family._

* * *

Tatsumi dropped to his knees.

_Let this be a dream._

**Please let it be a dream.**

But as they came close, the painful reality of the world he lived in became apparent and undeniable.

Her left arm was gone.

* * *

**A/N: Goddamn this was a bitch to write. Why you gotta be such a stubborn bitch, Esdeath? I swear, compared to change her character it's easier to pressurize the earth's mantle and create diamond. Okay, bad comparison, but still. So difficult.**

**I had fun making Tatsumi miserable, but I think his shock is understandable. His life is relatively sheltered compared to those living in the capital - it used to be easy for him to distinguish between monsters and men. But Esdeath is something in between, an enigma that he could not solve.**

**Poor Sayo. Beaten in battle, hair ripped out, heart broken to pieces and now she gets a chimera to the face. I contemplated killing her but I figured Esdeath wouldn't let that happen, not when it would compromise her relationship with Tatsumi.**

**So it begins.. the change we've all been waiting for. It took long enough, but the sheer solidity of her character did it, not me. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing Esdeath justice.**

**Review, my darlings! School is getting stressful and I have six essays to write in less than five days, so I'll need the boost if I'm going to get through this month.**

* * *

**HIATUS ANNOUNCEMENT.  
**

* * *

**My class assignment is to write a book. Fully edited and finished in four.. no, three months. This is definitely going to have to take priority over everything else I'm doing, including fanfiction.**

**Both my stories, Frost and Lollipops, has received great reception and I feel so blessed to have you guys as readers. Your criticism, both good and bad, has helped me improve in being a writer.**

**That said, I realize I still lack the skills to construct a story like Frost. I still have a lot to learn. BUT! ****This is not the end. I made a promise to finish what I've started and I will, although it won't be the ending I've originally planned for this story.**

**And I take my promises seriously.**

**Write a book for schol? Yeah, it's silly, I know. But until it's done. I can't do heavy writing like Frost. In addition, I'm doing a two-hour play as well, so don't expect updates any time soon.**

**Have a good day!**

**-Deathwhisperer.**


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